


i think i too have known autumn too long

by SparklingFox



Category: One Piece
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, Time Travel AU, lost swordsman lost in time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-02-20 02:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 63,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13137090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparklingFox/pseuds/SparklingFox
Summary: Once, years ago on the Sunny, he and Luffy were lounging on top of the crow’s nest as they gazed up at the constellations of the night sky. In that tranquil, frozen moment with Luffy’s face illuminated by starlight, Zoro knew that he would split this world open and tear down the sky if it meant keeping him smiling.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Character death happens shortly before the time travel itself.   
> Hello! I've had this idea knocking around in my head for a while. Hope you guys like this clumsy piece of writing and criticism is welcome as English is not my first language.

Near the edge of the world on a vast expanse a glimmering blue sea silence shrouds over them as the dawn breaks. Soft light revealed the shadows of a dozen fleets, menacing in their stillness as they waited for the signal to the start of the end.

For the Strawhats it was end to a single chapter and a continuation of their story, Raftel lay beyond the blockade of marine battleships, and each was ready to reach that goal set a lifetime before. Luffy who stands tall at the helm, sunlight outlining his figure, seemed indestructible with his sharp and confident grin.

Here was the Pirate King, all but in a title, with his hat tied and swinging behind from the winds and in this moment Zoro steps forward. Their eyes meet and the swordsman feels the world shift out of focus until it is just the two of them.

No words are needed as they gaze at each other for long heartbeats, sea breeze brushing Luffy’s messy head of hair. His captain nods and Zoro readies himself.

“Let’s go everyone!”

The Thousand Sunny’s engines roars to life.

~*~

In the midst of battle Zoro has two points of focus, one is Luffy and the other are his opponents. As they break through the marines with their allies and shift the fight onto the island, no matter the distance he is always aware of where Luffy is. He looks up from his victory and feels pride rush through him at his nakama’s triumphs, each shining like the brightest of gems. With a grin that glints with teeth and viciousness he charges deeper into the jungles to where his captain is.

This day had been coming for a long time, years of sailing through the New World to face challenges that would’ve crushed a less stubborn crew, molded them into what they were. Now all that was left was to beat down Blackbeard as his armies, a man who usurped the world nobles and gained a stranglehold over their powers. A man who pitched the world into a war that lasted decades and reaped countless of souls.

He finds Luffy in the middle of a throng of enemies and carves his way to his captain’s back, who only laughs and gives him a challenging smile.

  
“I thought Zoro got lost on his way over!”

Zoro ducks underneath rubber arms and strikes at enemies that foolishly aimed for Luffy’s open side, “And leave you on your own? As if.”

His captain’s boisterous laughter rings out like bells as they continue fighting. They move around each other like streams of water, complementing each other so smoothly that their opponents had an impossible time trying to see who was where. Heartbeats syncing together in the din of battle, connected down to their souls.

  
A black void suddenly crashes into the area, swallowing everyone in its way (how they screamed when they were absorbed, desperate and in agony). He looks over and sees Blackbeard and his lieutenants lazily walking over to them. It was as if his fruit power took over him entirely, body as black as the void with his face being the only human thing left of him.

“I knew I’d find you brats together. Good to see your fighting spirit still intact even after I took your arm Roronoa.” Blackbeard’s laugh is an empty sound that drips with malice.

  
“Come and get what’s left if you can.”

It’s Luffy’s cool presence next to him that keeps him grounded in the face of the monster that ruined empires and almost ruined their crew. It was Luffy who had held onto his left arm with whitened hands, urging him to survive through tear soaked words as Chopper tried to recover what was left of his other arm, eaten away black caustic ichor.

Zoro feels the rest of his nakama make their over and shifts his stance, anticipation of revenge and victory thrumming through his body.

  
“I’m gonna beat the crap out of you now Teach."

Luffy’s declaration began the fight of their lives.

~*~

At some point their fighting lead them into a vast ruins of a bygone era. Tall crumbling towers and once magnificent monuments eroded by the elements lined the valley towards a temple.

His opponent was Shiliew of the Rain who taunted him at every opportunity when their blades clashed.

“I can’t believe someone like you beat Mihawk! You who are an embarrassment to your swords.” Zoro parries easily and blinks behind him with an unseen speed, landing a deep cut with Wadou.

He is not without his own injuries but they are insignificant in the light of day, right now he has to win and get back to Luffy’s side. Zoro turns and scoffs as the former warden hisses as his leg shakes and almost collapses from the wound. “You’re the embarrassment here, abandoning your duty like a spineless coward.”

“When I’m done with you I’m gonna ask Blackbeard to drag that Strawhat here so he can see your body in pieces before I cut his wiggly little neck.”

Red clouds his vision, the intent to kill spiking through him so forcefully that even Shiliew takes a half-step back. He raises six arms, half of them spectral and luminescent, and lets out a menacing growl that echoes through the valley.

Zoro charges forward, blades angled and seeking blood,“You mock because you are afraid, nothing but a coward beneath your weak flesh.” He drives in all of his blades deep into his heart and swings them outward, painting the ground with splatters of iron and blood.

Not even waiting for the body to fall he keeps going forward with his senses honed in on Luffy, cutting through enemies without discretion and care.

  
Inside the temple he sees evidence of battle-damage and the echoes of it resonating from the tunnels leading underground. Winding passages and complicated entryways do little to obstruct him from reaching his captain as he smashes through debris with a single-minded intensity.

He discovers them in a large circular chamber that was occupied by one single pillar in the middle. Zoro leaps at Blackbeard as he reared back to attack a knocked down Luffy and parries the blow with a snarl.

“Ah, how convenient Roronoa. Saving me the time to go look for you.”

A shockwave throws him against a wall.

“Do you two brats even know what’s in this place right before your eyes? A treasure that the famous Gol D. Roger was afraid of!” He thrusts his hands towards the pillar and laughs, “Inside that case is the World Egg! It has the ability to give its user power of creation!”

Luffy stood up and cracks his knuckles, sharing an affirmative nod with Zoro, “I don’t care what it is, we’re gonna beat you the hell up!”

  
They traded vicious blows and Zoro was partially aware that he was probably bleeding internally with several broken ribs when he intercepted a fatal attack with his body. An action that made Luffy enraged beyond what he thought was possible. Still, he grit through the pain and joined his captain in the relentless fight and let himself enter a state of a calm and razor sharp focus honed through years of experience.

At last Blackbeard started to stagger, the cost of maintaining control over both of devil fruits finally catching up to him as more strikes injured him. Zoro pivoted away from grasping shadows and soared into the air, swords glinting in the faint light as he drove them in true and steady. Each of the six blades dug into a vital organ and he twisted them in with malicious glee, relishing in the sounds of pain. He pulled his blades free and stepped back just as a flurry of haki powered fists smashed in Blackbeard’s head into the floor.

They waited, breaths frozen in their lungs, as they watched the now unmoving body and slowly let relief and joy take over. He dispels the Asura form just as rubber arms wrap around him and he returns the hug just as forcefully and with just as much love. Hearts singing _we’re alive, we’re alive together._

  
He breathes in Luffy, the blood, the sweat, and the underlying scent of the sea and the summer breeze, and lets himself laugh. Zoro grips the back of his captain’s neck and pulls him down into a kiss, full of joy mixed in with their bitter tears, and feels the weight of the world lift off his shoulders. His captain cradles his face between his bruised hands and looks at him fondly like he’s the most precious thing in the world. An expression so honest and genuine that causes Zoro’s heart stutter and swell with a heavy emotion.

Captain and first mate stood there, lost in each other, holding onto each other like they the last safe haven in a raging storm, for long heartbeats before they pulled away. Luffy entwines their hands as he drags him towards the tall pillar in the middle of the room.

“So there’s an egg in here. Can we eat it?”

“Who knows, he was pretty delusional.”

Luffy hums and pokes a finger at the pillar, both of them startling slightly when its stone casing parts to reveal a little chamber within. There’s a tiny snake, almost the length of his index finger, curled around a glimmering rainbow gemstone, its skin shined like black opal with a kaleidoscope of colors reflected on the surface. When it opens its eyes they are greeted with bright green gemstones as it regards them.

“You’re not an egg.” Luffy sounds disappointed as he tilts his head, brows narrowed.

“No. Are you here to claim me?” The snake winds itself around the gem and replies in a whisper that echoed in their minds. 

“Woah! You talked in my head! That’s so cool.”

Luffy lowers himself so he can be eye-level with the snake, “And I really don’t wanna claim anything, well other than being the Pirate King! So do you do that?”

  
In a moment’s notice Zoro feels something lash out from behind them and turns just to see Blackbeard’s fruit power, shaped like a lance, shooting straight at them. He reacts on instinct to push Luffy away but the injuries stall him and as the scene unfolds his heart stops. His captain had been faster, the black mass impaled straight through his body as his hands keep it from moving further towards Zoro.

His captain who jumped in front of that attack without hesitation, without regard of his own life. Who looks back at him with a blood stained smile and so much adoration in his eyes. Past him he sees Blackbeard’s gleeful smile as the bastard finally succumbs to death. Choking on his breath he catches Luffy’s body and lays it down gently as he mechanically looks over the damage. There was a large gaping hole in the middle of his chest and it was nothing short of a miracle that Luffy was still breathing, for now.

He clinically knows that his captain won’t survive this. Shock gives way to grief, anger, as he bows over him and presses their foreheads together. “You fucking idiot. Why, why why…” He wasn’t sure if he was shouting or whispering, couldn’t tell past the white noise that filled his head as he watches Luffy laugh, the sound wet and painful. 

“I can’t be Pirate King without Zoro.”

Zoro grabs the hand that had been reaching for his face with his shaking one, presses his lips against the palm and tastes nothing but his tears. “I’m the one who’s supposed to-”

“You’ve saved me so many times Zoro, I just wanted to repay the favor.”

Luffy cups his hand around Zoro’s face and smiles.

“I’m sorry Zoro, I promised we were gonna sail together forever but-” he wheezes in a breath painfully before continuing. “It’s okay Zoro, promise me that you’ll keep an eye on the others.”

“Luffy…”

He wants to tell him to stop talking nonsense, he wants to yell at him for breaking their promise, he wants more than anything to have their roles swapped in this moment.

“Love you...” Luffy whispers, barely audible as his hand goes limp with a peaceful smile on his face.

His captain’s last words cuts through him and shatters him completely. Zoro clutches his body and wails, cursing the world. He felt like he was drowning, gasping for breath as his chest constricted with agony that made the aftermath of Thriller Bark feel insignificant in comparison. Zoro wasn’t sure for how long he stayed there on the floor, crying his guts out before a voice whispers through his mind.

“Are you here to claim me?”

He freezes and remembers the snake inside the pillar and after a moment of consideration he breathes in deeply. Leans over to place a gentle kiss over Luffy’s forehead before he stands up on unsteady feet and walks the few steps back to the pillar.

“Do you have the power of life like he said?”

“I cannot resurrect the dead.”

Zoro slams his fist against the pillar, leaving a deep crack in it. “What use are you then?!” His voice echoes, guttural and rough.

“Claim me and I can grant you power over time itself.”

The snake slithers around the gem, silver tongue flicking out as it waits for his reply.

Finally, tentatively he speaks after opening his mouth several times, “What’s the price?”

“Find me again and I will tell you.”

Once, years ago on the Sunny, he and Luffy were lounging on top of the crow’s nest as they gazed up at the constellations of the night sky. In that tranquil, frozen moment with Luffy’s face illuminated by starlight, Zoro knew that he would split this world open and tear down the sky if it meant keeping him smiling. He doesn’t care for whatever the snake will ask him later as long as it meant that Luffy would be alive.

“Fine.”

He reaches into to grab it but right before he could the snake twists and bites into the soft flesh between his thumb and index finger. Ignoring the reflex to pull it off he watches as it drinks his blood. Its eyes glinting as the voice whispers in his head, “It’s a promise then.”

Darkness clouds his vision and he suddenly feels extremely weak and unbalanced. He falls over, gasping at the feeling of his muscles convulsing violently. With the remains of his consciousness he looks back at Luffy’s peaceful face one last time before he faints.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wanted to post this one before the hustle and bustle of new years  
> Thank you for reading!

Something foul was licking his face. He feels around with his hand, finding matted fur and pulls away the creature with an irritated growl. It's barks cheerfully at him, tongue lolling out lazily.

Upon closer inspection it definitely is a mutt with floppy ears and brown fur with black spots, albeit covered in grime and dirt. It wiggles around in his grip and he finally drops it and sits up fully. His body twinges with pain and that reminds him of what happened.

Zoro looks around wild eyed and discovers only a deep forest. The events of the temple rush back into him and he lets out a series of expletives as he checks himself over. Lets out a small relieved breath when he sees both Shuusui and Wado sheathed in place. For the briefest of moment he had forgotten and looked over to call out a name, then he remembers.

That damned snake did something, whether it sent him back through time or just to the ass end of nowhere, he needed to figure it out. Ignoring the many protests of his body he gets up and just starts walking. The dog runs around him with happy little barks and despite his repeated attempts at discouraging it, the mutt refuses to leave his side.

“I’m not feeding you.”

Ignoring his glower it barks and runs ahead out of the line of trees.

Digging fingers into his hair Zoro just sighs and follow it. Once he steps out of the forest he realizes that he was on a small island. A familiar one.

  
The old dojo stood quietly underneath the shadow of the mountain and he saw workers on the fields, backs bowed under the mid-morning sun. In a daze he makes his way down the hill (remembering the countless times he had run up and down it as training).

As he wanders around the streets towards the dojo he notices terrified stares and hushed whispers directed his way. Tilting his head Zoro huffs when the same group of village gossips he remembers from his childhood freeze and scuttle away. Setting his face back into a mask of indifference he wanders around, trying to recall and failing at finding his way to the dojo.

He swore it was just up the road from the market and the worn down inn but right now he's standing at the crossroads of some residential district. Scratching his head he looks around and mutters under his breath and traces back his steps. The mutt is no help at all, just following him with a happy, almost furious wagging of its tail.

“You're just looking forward to scraps ain't ya?”

It barks in agreement and runs ahead of him, barking again when he doesn't follow after it quickly enough. Scoffing Zoro takes his time even when the mutt comes back and tries to lead him by the hem of his robe. He nudges it away with the toe of his boot and the damn mutt latches on that instead. It practically gnaws at his boot while he tries to shake it off.

“I'm gonna shave your fur off fleabag!”

His threat falls on deaf ears as the mutt gets dragged through the dirt road, growling every step of the way. Annoyed, a little hungry, a little in pain, he walks around stiffly and stops by a quite terrified looking street vendor. Before he could even order something the man throws a handful of meat buns at him, stuttering something along the lines that they're free samplers before cowering behind his cart.

Shrugging he bites into one and tosses another at the mutt, who immediately unlatches it's jaws and swallows the bun whole. With a snort he tosses it one more before walking away. He lets his legs guide the way as his mind wanders through memories. First step is figuring out where he was in terms of time, second he needed to get to Raftel to find the snake. Between those two points he has a developing list of people that he wanted to pay a special visit to. Zoro yawns and looks around, the gates of the dojo a few steps away.

As he pushes the wooden gates open a voice cuts through the quiet summer day, “Hello. What business do you have here?”

To his side stood the master of the dojo, looking calm and exactly like he remembered with the faintest of grey peppering around his temples.

Zoro face him fully, and adopts a bored tone, “Just visiting, heard this is a decent school.”

“And you look to be an experienced swordsman. What would you need from a school?”

“Maybe I came by to see if there’s anyone worth teaching. I heard rumors about a girl who beat every challenger that came by.”

At his words Koshiro looks down for a moment before looking straight at him, “I’m afraid my daughter passed away three years ago from an accident. Have you traveled far to arrive here?”

It takes him some effort to not grimace openly, not to curse at the blasted fate and time the snake put him back in. Couldn’t the damn thing sent him back a few more years ago? Swallowing the spike of grief and rage he straightens up.

“You could say that.”

His old teacher looks him over one more time and it still annoys him that he couldn’t get a read on the man with that perfect face of neutrality.

“You seem to be injured wanderer, please at least stay a while until you are healed. After all you came all this way for nothing.”

“Thanks, I’ll stay for the night.”

Koshiro mouth twitches into the barest of smiles as he leads him inside the walls of the dojo. He talks about the history of the dojo and points out the training grounds while they walk towards the living quarters.

The wave of nostalgia hits in him spades as Zoro looks around, taking in familiar sites. The little awning behind a corner where kids would gather to gossip, battered training posts, and distinct lines cut across a wall where former students marked their signature when they graduated. His once hazy memories (decades old) of this part of his life came rushing through and he simply stands there on the cobbled path for a heartbeat and lets himself remember as a gentle breeze passes by him.

Eventually they reach a guest room and Koshiro goes to get their medical supplies. Zoro mechanically looks over his body as he stripped, tossing the blood soaked coat carelessly to the side. Feels around and winces at bruised or more likely broken ribs, inspects the large cuts across his torso, and finally frowns at the spattering of deep, angry bruises and cuts left behind by Blackbeard’s attacks.

He’s been in injured more times in his life than he could keep track of, huffs quietly as memories of Chopper’s upset lectures and fretful worrying comes to mind. Zoro rubs his fingers over a set of bruises on his thigh and sighs with the realization that he wouldn’t be seeing his crew for some time. The pulse of pain refocuses him from the wandering, pathetic path his mind would take and looks over as the door slides open.

“Ah, I’ll call a doctor over.”

Koshiro sets down the box of medical supplies before leaving again.

At this point more Zoro just wants a drink.

~*~

The doctor muttered something about how he should be dead with the amount of injuries, old and new, on him as he wraps him in salve (not as tightly as Chopper’s bandages) and advises restful days. Zoro shrugs as an answer, trying to remember which inns had the better selection of alcohol.

That’s how he spends his first three nights in Shimotsuki, prowling in the darkest corners of taprooms and drinking their reserves dry as he attempts to dull the pain thumping through his chest. Doesn’t bother sleeping after the first night plagued him with nightmares of his captain, lifeless and cold. He knows he needs to get out of this slump and move forward, wherever that might take him. Yet he feels exhausted down to his bones, his soul, and wonders, perhaps if he should have died with Luffy back there.

He selfishly regrets, frustration making his teeth clench, the tangy taste of blood mixing with the alcohol, as he breaks another bottle in his hand. Zoro surmised that he was at least three decades back in the past, almost ten years before the Strawhats start on their journey. He chose this twist in fate and has to live with the consequences of it. He will march on, that is undeniable, all for the sake of his captain.

But more than anything he wants to see Luffy again, that stupid smile that lit up the whole world and made something warm and tight flutter in his being every time. Shaking off the remaining glass from his hand Zoro rubs his temples. Sighs and just slumps back in his chair and orders another bottle, focusing on the pain in his hand more than anything else.

At some point he must’ve wandered around the village because he wakes up in a meadow near the forest. He reaches out and plucks one of the purple columbine flowers abundant in the area and twirls it between his fingers. With a sigh he lays back against the soft grass to gaze up at the brilliant night sky. Tries and fails at not letting himself think, to feel, grips the flesh over the merciless pain in his heart and breathes out shakily.

The stars are the only witness as silent tears stream down the face of the stoic swordsman.

~*~

When he spots a gangly kid with bright green hair training at the edge of the forest in the faint dawn light he just grins and keeps walking. He feels empty, in the calm sense that leaves room for possibilities, and a steel-bound resolve fills him to face the now uncertain future.

Before going to the dojo he swings by the the graveyard, grass glinting with dewdrops in the quiet morning, and kneels in front of a familiar headstone. Zoro replaces the incense sticks, brushes his fingers against smooth etching, and bows his head in greeting.

Zoro leans over and places the handful of fresh flowers he picked on the way into the little holder. “It’s been a while Kuina. A lot has happened but I can say our dreams came true.”

He breathes in and out deeply, letting his mind go still as he began his meditation. Remembers how during his final fight with Mihawk the crew supported him on the sidelines, recalls the knowing and proud smile his captain flashed at him. It was a victory that made him feel numb and ravenous at the same time. Satisfied by what it took him to get there, humbled by the knowledge that he wouldn’t have made it here alone.

In the serenity of the rising dawn he thinks back to the day he first met Luffy and gradually remembers details of the beginning of the journey of a lifetime. The dreams, the hopes, the pasts of each Strawhat that entrusted with one another. Zoro opens his eye and breathes, realizing where he must go first.

He stands up and bows one last time. “Thanks for watching over me all those times Kuina.”

~*~*~

He's shrugging into his robe, newly mended and smelling of sunshine, when Kushiro appears at the door.

“Are you preparing to leave already?”

Zoro replies with an affirmative noise and fastens on his belt, before reaching for his wrapped swords he looks over to his old teacher and waits for him to say something else.

“I thought you visited for another student of mine, you two have a passing resemblance.”

Wry amusement bubbles in his chest as Zoro snorts, “Who knows, maybe we are. Kid like that needs to learn some hard lessons before I teach him anything first.”

He remembers his pride, unwilling to bend for anything much like raw steel, a soul that needs to be tempered before anything else. He loops on his swords and notices the critical gaze Kushiro shoots at Wadou’s new hilt, one that had to replaced when Blackbeard almost destroyed that sword along with Kitetsu (and his arm) in one of their fights. 

“You came here with an unsteady eye and frail spirit swordsman, I’m glad you found some peace during your stay here.”

“Yeah, thank you for the hospitality.”

With a bow he moves past him, crosses into the threshold outside of the dojo and looks up at the brilliant blue of the sky.

“Before you leave, may I have your name?”

A name was a powerful entity, he stumbles for a moment trying to think of one that wasn’t so blatantly obvious. Suddenly remembering their time in Wano country, the title given to drifters and wanderers without masters. He had failed the one person who had sworn his heart to, hadn’t he?

“Just a Ronin.”


	3. Chapter 3

Zoro acquired passage on a merchant’s vessel in return for security work, an arrangement that the old trader was all to happy about. Exhausted after another restless night he’s washing his face in the small sink of an even smaller lavatory when he sees his reflection. A stark white instead of his familiar mess of green hair. A little startled he combs it back with his fingers and grouses, if that damned cook ever found out that he greyed out sooner he would never live it down. With a sigh he scrubs his aching face and finishes up cleaning, lest he finds himself being sentimental over _Sanji_ of all people.

Ambling his way over to the cabin (after a few wrong turns that he will deny to any of witnesses) Zoro flops himself on a chair, legs stretching outwards as he nods in greeting.

“Those forsaken pirates have been getting bolder lately, ever since the execution of _that_ man. My boys spotted black sails heading our way," the captain spits on the floor before pouring the two of them a glass of bitter spirits, her wrinkled hands adorned with many rings.

“You look like someone who’s seen the world, you got that light in your eyes. Haunted but still hunting for something," she says.

“You’re letting the alcohol get you already, saying bullshit like that.”

She chortles at his reply and downs the glass, slamming it back on the table while she pointed a finger at him. “Then explain to me why someone like you is going to a sleepy place like Dawn Island.”

He doesn't reply immediately, swirling his drink around as he felt the waves rock them along. Feels a storm brewing from the twinge in his bones and in the absent space of his arm.

Lightning strikes and the alarm bell rings outside, one of the crewmen yelling something about pirates.

The old merchant sits back and nods at the door. “Time to earn your keep.”

He puts down the half-empty glass and stands up lazily, fingers tapping on the handle of his swords. The scene outside was a mix of frantic shouting from the crewmen and gleeful jeers from the boarding pirates. Zoro walks forward, bending his body just slightly to avoid the bullet sailing a hairsbreadth from his face. He stops in the middle of the deck and faces the pirates, who were all staring at him intently.

“I could be merciful and give you a warning but-” his thumb flicks up Shuusui’s hilt and he catches the singing blade easily, “-You’ve made your choice already.”

  
Relishing in the feeling of fear seeping into the air as he dashes forward, seemingly flickering into and out of existence with each lightning strike. The movements of his opponents were slow, predictable. Fear paralyzing them as their instincts screamed of an impossible danger. The fight, if he could call it that, barely lasted a handful of seconds as he sheathed his sword, frowning deeply from how disappointing the whole thing was.

As he walks back into the cabin the vessel belonging to the pirates splits apart and sinks under the tumultuous waves.

“I’ve got permanent work for you,” the old merchant states as he sits back down and downs the drink immediately. The way her fingers tap erratically at the table already told him that she knew his answer.

Uninterested he pushes forward the now empty glass with his finger and raises a brow expectantly. She grumbles and refills their glasses again.

~*~*~

If he expected anything from Dawn island it was exactly as it could be. It was a town with people, all busy with their lives. The port full of activity, marine whites mixed in with the townsfolk. High pristine walls could be seen surrounding the town.

“Here Ronin.”

He turns and catches the silver swallow shaped brooch the old merchant flipped towards him, “Thought I wasn’t getting paid.”

“You ain’t, consider that an investment from me. I own most of the trading vessels in the East Blue. Show one of my boys that and you’ll get passage anywhere.”

Nodding his thanks, Zoro pockets the brooch away and strolls away. Has to stop more than a few times to keep asking for directions out of the town but manages to find the gates after a half a day of wandering about. Catches the familiar and unpleasant scent of burning waste and decay from one side of the walls.

He had been following the road at the beginning but at some point it had diverged, feet taking him through uncharted paths.In the faint dusk light he trudges his way through thick foliage and despite the voice that oddly sounded like Nami, he felt that he was walking in the right direction. In the peripheral of his consciousness the animals of the forest stalk around him, wary of his presence. Even in the complete darkness of the night, with trees blotting out the scarce light from the crescent moon, he continued on, letting his senses guide the way.

  
Finally he steps out of the forest and looks below to see the shadows of numerous windmills by a small village with a few faint glowing lights. Zoro walks down the hill, pace forcefully measured. Failing to forget the times when they found hills like these Luffy would drag him to the top and roll all the way to the bottom, laughter light and full of joy. He wonders if this is where that habit formed, when Luffy was young and with his brothers.

Almost all of the houses in the village were dark with dim lanterns hung around the streets. Near the small port was a bar with a light coming from within and he makes his way inside. A woman tending to the bar looks up at his entrance and smiles, the cheerful yellow of her bandanna evident even in the low light.

“Welcome to Party’s bar! It’s pretty late to be wandering around isn’t it? Come on in and have a seat.”

She hands him a potent, spicy hot drink and smiles as he sits down and introduces herself with a kindness that reminds him of someone. Her presence is oddly soothing, hands wiping drinking glasses and humming a song reminiscent to a lullaby.

“Is there a kid who lives here, black hair and made of rubber?”

Zoro notices the quick change in Makino's expression, fiercely protective, before she turns to regard him with a smile lacking in its previous warmth.

“Why do you ask? There’s a lot of kids in the village.”

“I’m a friend of the family," he replies smoothly, watches some of the stiffness in her shoulders ease.

Makino carefully places cup she was cleaning on the shelf and levels him with a searching look. Despite her initial demeanor he knows that this woman wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to defend what she holds dear with tooth and nail.

She sighs and loosens her hair, combing through it with slim her fingers while speaking, “We’ve had a lot of trouble in this village in the past few years but...you don’t seem like the lying type.” Makino murmurs the last bit as she ties hair back up and looks him over again.

Zoro drinks, letting her be the judge of it. Coughs when the aftertaste of the drink burns his throat and warms his entire body. After some minutes she exhales and smiles, head tilted as if still considering.

“Well, tomorrow’s one of the days they come by and visit. You can stay the night here.”

“My thanks.”

The room she guides him to is small, the bed barely big enough for him. Makino laughs and apologizes over it, leaving him with an extra set of pillows and a thick woolen blanket.

  
As soon as he lay down a deep exhaustion that seemed to exude from his very bones settles in him. The bed was comfortable despite the size and he felt safe, an uncommon feeling. Zoro had been avoiding sleep during his travel here, substituting it with brief naps. All to futilely avoid an image that torments him, seared as it was into mind (a still face void of a smile; limbs weighed down by inky blackness).

He sighs wearily and digs a thumb into the socket of his eyes to relieve the pressure building up behind his skull. In the quiet space of the room he stares up at the ceiling and hears echoes of creaks and groans of a ship and the sound of waves outside the wooden walls. Zoro lays there stiffly, forcefully waking himself up whenever the grips of sleep became too deep, until the morning light filtered through the curtains.

Outside the village was also waking up, people greeting each other merrily. Downstairs Makino places breakfast in front of him, eyes softening at his grateful smile.

“They usually come down by mid-afternoon. Our village is small but there might a few things that you could do while you wait.”

After eating he helps her set down the chairs and move around tables before venturing out into the town. Walks by the blacksmith and watches the burly man there light up the forge and wave at him. Zoro shakes his head when the smith asked if he wanted any work done and continues walking.

Since mastering the Armament Haki, he hadn’t had a dire need to upkeep his swords and instead kept it up as a habit. On quiet afternoons Brook usually joined in, humming softly, telling an anecdote, or just sitting in companionable silence as they cleaned their blades. It was their musician who helped through the initial stages of the loss of his arm. Patient and calm as the sea while Zoro fumbled through the task of relearning how to clean his remaining swords, even when anger and shame took over. Brook sparred with him, offered advice for his changed center of gravity and sang of the sun when he brooded. 

Realizations strikes through him like ice cold waters with the fact that Brook is out there in this moment, alone on a derelict ship sailing in a sea of despair. Wonders if this was the kind of pain the musician faced everyday, memories both a torment and a boon. It explained the undying and powerful spirit their musician has.

He unclenches his hand and releases the breath trapped in his chest and continues walking. For most of the morning he just ambles around, familiarizing himself with the sights of the village that Luffy grew up in. As the sun moved across the sky he waits, anticipation gnawing at his chest.

Right around noon he hears a commotion coming from the main street and makes his way over with brisk steps. Two boys, one tall with a messy mop of black hair and one short with a straw hat still too large for his head, were bouncing up and down and yelling for Makino.

  
In the shadow of a building Zoro freezes, feels his heart stutter and swell twice its size. Watches as the tiny kid turns to the side and reveals a profile that was painfully familiar, if much, much younger.

It wasn’t a surprise to see that Luffy hadn’t changed much throughout the years, even well into his forties he had kept that youthful charm. Zoro didn’t realize how much seeing him now would hurt, in a manner much like cauterizing. This kid wasn’t his Luffy, that much was clear, however, something in his soul eased. Whenever he closed his eye all he could see was that body, cold and limp with a seeping black hole in his chest.

This moment affirmed that Luffy is alive, full of energy that was near bursting out of his overly small body. Zoro didn’t realize he was walking forward, body moving on deep-rooted instinct. The kid turns to regard him just as Zoro kneels in front of him and wraps his arm around him, feels the warmth, the life coming from him. He’s shaking with a heavy emotion and loosens the hold when Luffy squeaks in his bone crushing grip. His hand shakes over the kid’s back he feels the steady beat of his heart and bit by bit the tight stranglehold in his chest fades.

“Hey! Let go of my brother!”

A few steps away stood Ace, almost fully into adulthood, looking torn between punching him or pulling Luffy away. Sun kissed and freckled face wrinkled into a foreboding frown. Zoro’s first instinct was to refuse but immediately he knows he cannot keep this Luffy (as if the boy who made emperors and gods bow down could be bound by anyone). Zoro releases his grip and leans back and probably not for the last time, freezes at the look Luffy was giving him.

It’s that deep gaze that he’s familiar with, an expression that he had yet to decipher despite the years of intimacy between them. He doesn’t dare breathe when rubber arms wraps around his shoulders and Luffy hugs him with every ounce of strength in his tiny body. The serious look in his eyes vanishes as he pulls back and smiles brightly and says, “You look like you needed that.”

Every molecule inside him softens and Zoro finds himself returning the smile and carefully adjusts the straw hat gone askew.

  
“So who’re you? I’m Luffy and this is my big brother Ace!”

“A friend.”

Ace still looks a little suspicious as Luffy’s eyes are filled with stars.

“Really?! You look so cool!”

Zoro sees the small flinch when the kid's eyes land on the space of his missing arm but Luffy recovers immediately and bounces onto his back to further inspect him. Exclaiming over his swords as he skitters all over him not unlike an ant.

“Vagueness aside, who are you? Really," Ace asks with narrowed brows and a tap of his foot.

“Name’s Ronin. I promised someone that I would look after him.” Almost unconsciously he adjusts his body while talking, pulling his arm up as Luffy hangs onto it like a monkey.

“And you expect us to believe that? Just showing up from the blue one day?”

He knows about Luffy’s past and understands Ace’s protectiveness, even more so as he realizes that one of the brothers isn’t here.

“Sabo’s alive and well.”

  
Both boys freeze, eyes going wide with disbelief.

“How the hell do you know that? You’re lying!”

“Sabo’s alive?! We gotta get to him!”

In retrospect blurting that out might’ve been too soon but they deserve to know the truth. The fact that their brother is out there somewhere, waiting for the day they reunite.

  
Tears well up in Ace’s eyes as he stares up at him, hands clenched by his sides with this shoulders shaking. “He died...he can’t be alive…”

“He survived the explosion at the Grey terminal, right now he’s out there sailing in the Grandline.”

He looks over and sees Luffy wiping away the tears from his eyes and regarding him with an open, hopeful expression, “You’re not lying, right?”

Zoro immediately sets him down and places a hand on a wet cheek and smiles. “I would never lie to you.” And he means every word, it would be impossible for him to do anything but devote himself utterly and completely to this boy who will one day be king. Luffy starts bawling as he pulls Ace over and wraps the three of them in a tight hug.

~*~*~

Makino had herded them into a quiet spot of the bar and served them each a bowl of stew, ruffling both Ace and Luffy’s hair with a fond smile.

“You know what this means right Luffy? We gotta get even stronger so we can catch up to Sabo! He’s probably halfway to One Piece by now!”

Luffy sputters around a mouthful of food and slams the table with his hands, “No way! Let’s go become pirates right now!”

Ace laughs and wipes off the remains of a carrot splattered on his cheek from Luffy’s flailing.

“I’m gonna sail out in a few years, means you gotta work extra hard to meet-up with us later,” Ace says, a little cheekily.

“No fair! I wanna find Sabo first.” Luffy deflates in his chair, almost sliding all the way down to the floor.

Zoro sits there, food ignored, watching the two of them chat and chuckles softly when Ace falls asleep and Luffy pilfers the leftovers in his bowl.

He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure this Ace doesn’t die and hopes that maybe with the knowledge of Sabo he won’t be so reckless when it comes to Blackbeard. Because for all intents and purposes Zoro wants to track down that bastard first and carve him into unrecognizable pieces, make him suffer for an eternity and a half.

“Are you gonna eat your food?”

Zoro realizes he’s been zoning out for a bit and pushes his bowl forward as an answer, smiling as Luffy digs in almost immediately. The kid scoots over with his chair once he’s finished eating and stares intently at him before dazzling him with a big grin.

“You’re really not a bad guy at all Roro!”

He wants to protest at the name but finds himself unable, unwilling to, as Luffy launches into a story about the the bugs they found in the forest yesterday. Zoro listens intently, hand tucked under his chin, nodding at appropriate places and asking questions whenever Luffy got sidetracked.

Once Ace woke up Zoro took the dishes to the kitchen and pauses at the smile Makino gave him.

“What?”

“I have never seen anyone be that patient with Luffy when they first met him,” she says with warmth in her voice and a glint in her eye.

“He’s a good kid. Um, both of them are.”

Zoro rubs the back of his head, a little awkwardly, before scuttling away from the kitchen to escape the giggling woman. In his life he learned the important lesson of never underestimating a woman. To be especially wary when they got that look in their eyes that said that he was, per Nami’s words, _adorable and hopeless like a lost puppy._

A small rubber hand immediately grips his and he follows with a grin. Luffy retracts his arm and pulls himself up onto Zoro’s shoulders with a cheer, “C’mon Roro! We’re gonna go back to the mountain now.”

“Fine, fine.”

Halfway up the mountain Zoro leans forward to better support the sleeping kid, heart at ease from the quiet mumbling and the steady breathing.

  
“If you promised, why didn’t you come earlier?”

Ace’s almost inaudible question catches him off guard and he looks at the teen with his face turned to the ground.

“It took me a while to find where he was but I’m here now.”

He doesn’t get a reply, not expecting one anyway, and follows him up the winding path. They reach a tree house, obviously made with inexperienced hands from cobbled up salvage. Built with care and an imagination only three boys could come up with. The shape of it almost looked like a boat.

Zoro gently tucks Luffy into the hammock hanging from a tree branch and brushes back his hair. Ace had already lit up the fire pit, tossing sticks into it while bundling up in his own set of blankets.

He hesitates for a moment before reaching over and ruffling Ace’s head when he lay down, smirking when the teen swats away his hand (sees a glimpse of a smile that he hides into the crook of his arm). Zoro sits down with his legs crossed, feeling a warmth that was not entirely from the fire seep into his bones.

For the first time in many days he lets himself fall asleep and dreams of nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Wishing you all a wonderful New Years!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks for reading and leaving kudos and comments!!

It’s underneath the roots of one of the larger trees where Ace finds Ronin, sleeping, seemingly the only thing the guy has been doing for the past few weeks. The first time Luffy found him and decided to use the guy as a trampoline Ace was sure that his little brother was going to get thrashed. Instead Ronin just grumbled and yawned before turning over onto his stomach and sleepily told Luffy to ‘massage’ his back with his jumping. A request that his little brother took to with absolute glee.

Ace wasn’t really sure what to make of the guy, coming in one day and making bold proclamations and just ending up sleeping at all hours of the day. Something Ace couldn’t be too angry about since he has a habit of falling asleep at odd times and odd places, but his point still stood. So he tries to figure out what kind of person Ronin is through observing him.

Despite the white hair the guy had he didn’t look too old, just mostly tired. Ace tried to figure out why he carried around two swords, maybe in case one broke in a fight? Obviously the guy had a rough life with the amount of scars he had almost all over his body, Luffy creates elaborate stories for each one yet never speaks of the missing arm, never asks. Often times when they were gathered around a fire Ace would catch him staring vacantly at Luffy, expression a mix of sadness, confusion, or something in between. He couldn’t pinpoint it.

Ronin wandered off a lot too, seemingly in random direction. Rightfully suspicious Ace followed after him each time but the guy only ambled about before stopping at a good napping spot. The first time Luffy tagged him into a game of hide and seek it took them _three_ whole days to find Ronin, despite him being it. He sputtered and grumbled as Luffy laughed his ass off, proclaiming that Ronin got lost. Even while being heckled he carries around Luffy without protest and chokes on his spit when Ace questions his sense of direction.

On a stormy night Ace was restlessly staring at the rain coming down in sheets, thunder reverberating through his bones. It had stormed like this the day after Sabo’s death, or maybe his departure if Ronin was telling the truth. Ace wants to believe Sabo is alive with every fibre of his being, so badly that sometimes he catches himself thinking Sabo was gonna run and join them any moment for their usual escapades. But Sabo wouldn’t leave them willingly, they had made a pact as brothers, thick as blood. If it was the true then he was out there somewhere, waiting for him and Luffy to find him.

He sees Ronin bolt up suddenly from the corner of his eye and holds his breath when he hears the choked out remnants of an anguished cry. The man was biting into his hand, shoulders heaving with heavy breathing. Ace sees a trickle of blood as the man moves his hand down to clutch his chest, over where his heart must be beating rabbit fast. The starkness of the white of his eye was shockingly apparent when lightning struck and Ace sees the face of a man at death’s door. Haunted and full of sorrow.

Ace keeps still as Ronin sweeps his gaze over the area, confusion evident in the furrow of his brow before he finally catches sight of Luffy sleeping peacefully in his hammock. He grits his teeth and scrubs his face furiously, fingers digging into his temple. He looks desperate, like Dadan did during the fire, before he finally deflates and sighs. Ace pretends to sleep while he gathered his swords and disappears into the rain. Not for the first time Ace wonders at the kind of history he had.

Days later Ace put the event in the back of his mind as he runs through the crowded streets with Luffy in tow, arms full of food and books. His brother laughs rambunctiously as they dodge and weave through people and slide under a woman with an extremely large dress. Her shriek alerts even more law enforcers in the area but Ace keeps running, grinning with excitement and yelling at Luffy to keep up. Some winding alleyways later they hide behind shipping boxes and try to catch their breaths. He looks over just as Luffy does and both of them burst into laughter and high five each other.

“Did you see the one who tripped over the banana I threw Ace?!”

Ace snickers. “That took down the others that were behind him too. Nice thinkin’ Luffy.” He loops an around his brother and rubs his knuckles over his head, laughter bubbling out at Luffy’s protests.

After a little bit of snacking they start making their way back to the forest, Ace tries to balance a stack of books on his head, watching Luffy giggle until he bumps into someone. The books scatter around them and Ace looks up with a frown and sees some of the men of a local gang surrounding them. His worry grows when he sees even more shadows emerging from the streets and abandoned buildings.

“Well, well. What have we here? Two brats going around where they shouldn’t be.”

“Luffy behind you!”

Just as he says it a large man grabs Luffy by the neck and points a gun at him. Valiantly Luffy fidgets and struggles, using his rubber limbs to kick out. The man snarls and slams him down into the ground and presses down on his back with a boot. Just as Ace as was about to launch himself at him pain blossoms through his head, realizing a second later someone must’ve slammed his head with something hard. He falls and reflexively clutches the back of his head, breathes hard and tries to regain his focus faster.

“You two have been causing a lot of trouble for us lately. Consider this a little payback.”

A kick collides with his chest and it’s only barely that Ace grabs onto the leg and bites into it. He’s thrown back a small distance away and he swiftly recovers to his feet and takes a quick look around. There’s at least two or three dozen of them and the one keeping Luffy down was barking out orders, gun still aimed directly down at him. Ace needs to knock him out and make a run for it with his brother. Anger, cold and familiar, settles into his core before he charges with a yell.

  
He kicks at the knee of the nearest gang member and snatches the bat out of his hands and slams it against the legs of another. He’s in the middle, surrounded by several of them making swipes at him and some of them connect but Ace returns the hits as hard as he got ‘em. A gunshot makes them all stop and he looks over and sees a bullet hole mere centimeters away from Luffy’s still struggling form.

“The next one goes through his head so drop the bat and be a good little boy.”

“How about you take your men and leave before you start losing limbs.”

All of them look up at the source of the icy voice on a nearby rooftop. With legs crossed and sword already unsheathed Ronin glares down at them, “I’m not gonna ask again.”

When the gang leader raises his gun in defiance Ace felt it. An overwhelming sense of dread, a foreign pressure gripping his heart with fear, and for a heartbeat he understands that this is what prey must feel like. In a blink of an eye Ronin appears next to the leader, sword movement imperceptible. A second later the man falls to the ground with blood pooling out his chest.

Ace shakes off his momentary shock and sprints towards Luffy, who was already pulling himself up, reaching out towards Ace with an open hand. Quickly Ace pulls them away from the middle of it and pulls his bat at the ready, attacking some of the men shouting and targeting them as Luffy punched and yelled back. Luckily most of the gang members were focused on Ronin and Ace watches the swordsman glide through them, akin to a farmer harvesting wheat he cuts them down almost casually by the numbers.

It was over in minutes and Ace didn’t even protest when Ronin came over and hoists him in his arm after pulling Luffy onto his shoulders. None of them say a word, even Luffy sat there quietly and simply ran his fingers through Ronin’s hair. Ace sees splatters of blood decorating the swordsman’s body, feels the heart beating steady and calm, and watches the cold expression on Ronin’s face ease slowly as they walked. Eventually they reach a little spot by the pier, the setting sun coloring the horizon a mix of pinks and oranges.

“You two okay?” Ronin asks as he sets them down gently and squats down in front of them, eye sweeping over their bodies top to bottom.

“Yeah. Thanks for showing up when you did but how did you find us?” Because when he and Luffy left in the morning Ronin was sleeping soundly.

“Was looking for a place to drink actually, then I heard the commotion.”

Ace was certain he wasn’t telling the whole truth but he wasn’t sure on how he should even call out on it. So he stands there, watches the blood dry over like a second skin over Ronin’s body as the man scoops back a tired Luffy into his arm with a fond, relieved expression.

“Let's find something for you two eat,” Ronin says after a minute, already heading towards a random direction.

As they walk through the pier Ronin looks over at him. “You’re a good brother.”

“That’s what brothers do, they keep an eye on eachother," He replies with confidence. Luffy is a goofball, good natured, and most of all his family. Ace would do anything to keep him safe. 

Asking for anything was something of a difficulty for him but after witnessing what he had and to have a good chance of finding Sabo out there in the vast world, he knew he had to. Mind made up he stops suddenly and bows.

“Will you teach me how to fight?”

For a moment he wonders if it was a sudden question before he feels a hand ruffling his head and looks up and sees Ronin smiling, if only slightly.

“Sure," Ronin states simply.

Luffy stirs when the scent of food wafts over them as they go into a restaurant and dinner is as usual, a very loud affair. As he and Luffy fight over dishes and eat at the same exact time, Ace catches sight of the swordsman sitting across them, chin nestled in his hand and watching them with a faraway, melancholy smile.

Not for the first time (or last) Ace thinks he looks like he's adrift at sea, lost.


	5. Chapter 5

Time passes and the seasons change. The deafening cacophony of cicadas heralds the impending arrival of colder temperatures and the ever constant cycle of life. It was a surprise to him that he’s already spent a year like this when it felt like only days. Ace and Luffy took to his presence easily, he often woke up to a pair of sleepy brats curled and snoring on top him.

They were exceptionally receptive to his training as well, driven by the knowledge that they would sail the seas and meet with Sabo in the future. Each day Ronin had them practice moves and techniques, as if trying to fit pieces of a puzzle, eye narrowed and watching them critically before correcting them. Ace voiced out that their training felt like a meandering path with lots of curves and presumes this was probably why Ronin gets lost so much. Zoro just sat back and told the two brats to run ten more laps around the mountain and smirked at their groaning.

The brothers were quick to learn, picking up on methods like naturals. If either asked for specific advice he would teach them all he knew about it, cramming strategies and tricks into their heads. However, when Ace sought out an answer for sailing and navigating Zoro just shrugged and told him to follow his guts. Honestly his first mistake was to even ask Zoro directions anywhere.

“How do we fight bigger opponents?”

And Zoro would demonstrate and have them spar with him, gruffly voicing out their mistakes as they try to power him down. “Aim low, go in from the sides. Don't go for my blindside so obviously.”

Ace and Luffy were so enthusiastic about their training and progress that Zoro decided to lay out the foundations for Haki and it’s concepts, later to regret it when Luffy almost constantly trailed after him with his fist up, asking whether he’s doing Haki or not. Luffy was still too young but Ace’s will was manifesting itself already, bit by bit as the teen continued to train.

Those two were truly conquerors destined to take the world by storm.

Despite the contentedness in his bones while he stayed with the two kids, something in him was beginning to grow restless. Perhaps it was the voyager in him, finding it wrong to stay in one place for so long, yearning for the open seas whether they be cruel or tranquil.

Zoro longs for his crew, his family, and pushes those thoughts and accompanied memories away as quickly as they came.

When the first leaf fell Zoro looked to the sea, felt the insistent pull of the horizon in his heart. He’s sitting on an overlook with a rubber boy napping in his arm and feels warmth and devotion swirl in his chest. The swordsman is glad, thankful beyond words to have come here and seen Luffy alive and well. Selfishly stayed when he should have kept going to reach the end of the world.

Yet, the Strawhats were the only other ones to reach Raftel even with Blackbeard and the World Government nipping at their heels. He can’t even begin to imagine reaching that place with any other crew and not for the first time reflects about his path.

“Hey scamp," he says it softly as fingers stroke a cheek.

Luffy stirs awake and blinks up with tired eyes. As always a part of Zoro just melts at the sight and smiles. “I gotta go elsewhere for a while, there are folk out there that I need to find,” he murmurs the words and lets Luffy prop himself up with a yawn.

“You'll come back?” The kid souns hesitant, posing it as a question and something else.

He wants to promise to always be there but cannot, for one day he must leave for good to get back to his captain. So he combs back the unruly black hair and meets those large brown eyes that reflect the sun. “I promise we will meet again on the sea.”

Luffy stares at him for long moments before he pokes out his pinky finger, “Promise?”

“Yeah," he seals that promise with their pinkies, his so much larger and gnarled that the child’s, couldn’t help but smile and lay aside his worries for the moment.

Because one way or another he will always orbit around Luffy.

~*~*~

On the next day Zoro acquires passage on another trading ship, not really caring for the destination. Ace and Luffy don’t see him off immediately but as the island fades in the horizon he looks back and sees two small figures waving by the docks and hears their voices carried over by the wind and he smiles, sea salt in his hair and sun warming his back.

The captain let him on without a fuss when presented with the silver brooch gifted by the merchant and they sail through calm seas and after long days finally reach a set of islands Zoro remembers well. “We’ll be docking in Cocoyasi before dusk. You sure you want to get dropped off here swordsman? Nothing here but oranges and rice.”

He yawns and stretches while the crewman talks, nodding in reply. The village people acted stiff, wanting more than anything to finish trading and have the merchants be on their way. Buildings looked just as worn as the people there, faces hollow and hands bone white. None meet his gaze as he wanders around as each individual was focused on their craft with a desperate sort of intensity. The tavern he finds is filled with the same somber mood, air stale and tinged with anxious fear.

Zoro has a good guess on the situation at hand. Swirling the watered down drink around the glass cup he leans back on the rickety chair and thinks over his choices once again. He wasn't a man who agonized over different scenarios or possibilities, simply acting on instinct and reacting as needed instead. Zoro lived in the present without the past or future weighing down on his shoulders but now...Now he was in a predicament where he knew the general outcome of the future.

“Are you going to stay the night here, swordsman?” the innkeeper asks meekly.

Zoro notices the hike in fear around the patrons and senses several individuals approaching the inn. Fishmen burst in, laughing over ghoulish details as the innkeeper stammers out a greeting.

One of them notices him quickly and the group wanders over to him, chests puffed out with their hands lingering on their weapons in what would be a threatening manner. Amateurs the lot of them.

“Oi, oi haven't seen your ugly mug around here before. Well let me be the first to welcome you to these islands! Great place ain’t it? But before anythin’ else there’s a required fee.”

Zoro takes a sip of his drink, bored even before the first goon started talking, “Just passing through.”

“Travellers and merchants need to pay the fee too! It's all to make sure you get by safe and sound without any ‘accidents’. You understand?”

“Sorry, I don't have much on me," Zoro says, sounding not even the slightest bit apologetic.

Six in total drew closer around him while the last one closed the door to the bar with a pointed click.

“Since you’re a cripple we'll go easy on ya, give us one of those swords and swoosh, no fees," he saus with jerky movements of his arm, his fellows chuckling without mirth.

Annoyance rose within Zoro. He sat back and cracked his neck before standing up fluidly and glaring down at the fishmen. Some of them flinch and take a step back at the sight.

“Sure.”

He slams Wadou’s hilt onto the forehead of bastard leading this rabble.

~*~*~

Three broken chairs and a shattered table later he was sitting at the bar, nursing a refreshingly cool bottle of sake. The cuts on his knuckles throbs, blood already clotting over.

“When did they move in?”

The innkeeper, a willowy man with a stained apron, snaps to attention. “Almost two years ago. You'd best be on your way wanderer, Arlong won't take this kindly.”

“That's a pity.”

His calm statement is met with an alarmed expression. The bar cleared out during the brawl and a runner had probably reached the Park by now. The innkeeper is hurriedly packing away his drawer, shooting anxious glances at the door every few minutes before finally disappearing through the backroom.

  
Zoro doesn't pay him any mind as he sips his drink, sensing the quiet footfall of a child making their way over to him. Pretends not to notice the nimble, small hands taking off his depressingly light coin purse. In the corner of his eye he spots a flash of orange and after a few minutes he goes outside into the dusklight and heads towards the mikan fields.

Bits and pieces of the past come to him as he walks, the sweet scent of mikans sending him into a bout of nostalgia. Nami was always protective of her trees but on days worth celebrating they all pitched into collect the fruit and peel them as they sat around on the deck. The pith of the mikans clinging around their fingernails, sticky and pungent, as laughter filled the air. He could almost feel the soft grass tickling his skin and hear the carefree laughs of the crew as they tossed around the orange skins, loving each other as they do with delightful songs and good company.

He reaches up and plucks one mikan out of a branch, heavy with the fruit, and begins the slow process of peeling it with one-handed. It gives him something to focus on, albeit a trivial task, as he walks through the fields and trails the faint, small footsteps imprinted onto the soft ground. The house he stumbles upon is a small quaint thing. Washed out and faint chalk drawings decorate the walls of it, clearly made by a child’s inexperienced yet confident hands with thick lines and endless colors. There are farming tools strewn nearby and he goes over to prop up the rake that’s fallen over against the wall.

Zoro slowly sits down on a barrel and stares up at the darkening sky, stars shining brighter as a quiet settles in the night. “Hey kid, can you show me the way to the Park?” He leans his head against the wall, right above the picture of flowers and multicolored cats, and hears the shuffle of feet from inside the house as two voices whisper.

Eventually she says angrily. “Why do you want to go there? It’s an awful place.”

“Exactly the reason. They threatened to take something important from me so I’d rather teach ‘em a lesson.” Silence drags on for minutes before he shifts his head and looks over at the window where she’s hanging out from, an expression of a child’s curiosity mixed with healthy wariness, eyes narrowing when she makes eye contact. “I don’t trust you at all.”

“That’s fine, there’s a lot of people you shouldn’t trust anyway. Look, I don’t like those pirates claiming this island and neither do you. Let’s make a deal, you show me the way there and I’ll make sure they don’t hurt anyone else.”

Nami, small but full of determination and compassion, curls into herself and looks away. Her fingers are gripping the window sill tightly and he hears the slight hitch of her breath and waits patiently as he gazes up at the sky.

“I’ll show you if you promise to drive them off and...and buy a bag of mikans from me,” she said with a wavering voice that cleared and strengthened like steel at her last words. Zoro snorts and smirks at her, “Sure kid, I can do that.”

At first she keeps at least ten paces in front of him and constantly looks back while she guides him around. Later on after he wandered off far too many times when he lost sight of her short bright hair Nami had stomped her feet and yelled, “Are you an idiot?!”

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” he replies with a smile, the tease causing her to scrunch up her face comically.

Nami stomps over to him and looks him up and down skeptically and reaches out to grab the hem of his robe. After a moment of consideration she tugs on it and smiles impishly, “Guess I’ll have you drag you around like a dog.” Zoro reacts with mock indignation but lets her do so, hiding his amusement as she leads him along worn down paths, still glancing back at him with a baffled expression.

A few hours before the dawn they reach the coastline, the towering building of Arlong’s Park looming beyond the walls encircling the area. Nami’s body is shaking, hand tight around the hem of his robe, and his first reaction is to kneel down next to her and wrap an arm around her. She doesn’t cry, doesn’t hug him back, simply stays frozen in place and draws in a sharp breath.

“I’ll be back for those mikans,” He says warmly after a few minutes and stands up, walking away only after she let go of him.

There is no fanfare of villagers this time, only the silent and swift destruction borne from a man without remorse. Come morning the waves are tinged a frothy red and carry away debris with each hungry lap of the beach. Zoro’s sitting atop the ruined tower, feet propped on the embedded halves of Arlong’s sword, watching the fishman bleed from the countless slices across his entire body.

“Who the fuck...are you? Why?” Arlong manages to spit out and claws at the ground, gasping for breath.

Zoro flicks off the blood from Wado as he stood up, “A man protecting his family.” He said with a finality that heralded Arlong’s demise. He watches as blood spurts out from his chest and listens to the last, desperate gurgles for air before the heart stops beating. Zoro sheathes his sword and calmly walks away with the red dawn behind him.

The sea washes away his footsteps as he ambled along the beach, reaching down and picking up shining shells and throwing them back into the waters. Near the forest he spots Nami sitting on the sand, legs flush against her chest as she stares out at the sea.

“You hungry kid?”

“Not really. My name is Nami, not kid you geezer,” she mumbles, lower half of her face hidden in her arms.

“Sure Nami. I'm heading back to the village then.” As he trudges away Nami shoots up after him and grips the hem of his robes again and whispers, “You'll just get lost in the forest. It's that way.”

She guides him through the forest path, steady and sure as any compass needle, and with each stride her back straightens, shoulders relax. Nami suddenly stops and looks at him, with careful hope and tears forming in her eyes, as birds chirp and flutter above with the breeze singing through the trees.

“Is it really over?” Trembling, cracking voice that shouldn’t belong to any child.

Zoro sits down on the soft grass and rests against a tree covered in moss, “Yeah.” He crosses his legs and tucks his hand into his robe and smiles as Nami looks around the forest and lets out a laugh that is as free and light as the birdsong around them. His eye is closed but he can sense with perfect clarity the way she runs around, jumping and giggling, and crashes into his body with her heart fluttering beneath her small ribcage. Gently, slowly, Zoro lays his hand on her back and stays unmoving as she hiccups and bows her head.

He tells her of the East Blue and of islands and places. About a brave kid with an imagination bigger than the blue skies, about a floating restaurant and a foolish brat with gentle hands, and of a little boy with a straw hat and eyes that burn like the sun. (Doesn’t tell her about his younger self, remembering faintly of the rage and hurt and knows only time will temper that shapeless focus).

Eventually Nami falls asleep on top of him and he hasn’t the heart to disturb her rest, unconsciously combing her fiery hair with his fingers. Not even for a moment does he regret his decision to save a great pain for a member of his crew and thinks of the Nami that was older with a tempest raging beneath her skin and lightning in her veins, a force of nature rivaling the power of Devil fruit users. An individual that taught him the true meaning of compassion, ever willing to lend an ear and comforting words, a person who could naturally and simply understand and empathize with another. Not unlike the rainbow after a storm, she was beautiful, complex, and more precious than any glimmering gem.

He misses her company, the exasperated yet fond way she berated him and he wishes that he could hear what she would be saying about his situation now. Zoro sighs through his nostrils and gazes up at the specks of sunlight filtering through the boughs of the trees and concentrates on Nami’s calm, unfaltering heart beating against his.

~*~*~

News of the Park’s downfall reaches the entire island in several hours as more and more of the villagers confirm with their own eyes. Zoro keeps to himself as he drinks in the same bar from before, the drinks full bodied and the bartender whistling, until the mayor of the town sits across him with his own tankard. They sit in silence in the corner and finally Genzo takes off his hat, pinwheel spinning slightly from the movement, and bows.

“I can’t thank you enough for what you did.”

“Didn’t do it for you," Zoro says after setting down his empty bottle.

Silence descends between once more as another hour trickles by with more and more patons coming and going with high spirits. Some of them come over and slap Genzo’s back with laughter and seem to willfully ignore Zoro’s presence there. The mayor, more than a few drinks in, locks his hands together as if in prayer and lets out a world weary sigh.

“I often wondered what would have happened if I had told Bellemere to stay with the Marines and just send the girls here for us to take care of. She wrote when she could and they had been training her towards a Captain’s rank. It was hard to imagine that little thug in Marine whites as is…” Genzo laughs ruefully and takes another swig of his drink. “And then she wrote that she found two little girls orphaned after a pirate raid and I told her that they were her responsibility alone. I told her that she had to raise them, to take charge. Maybe I shouldn’t have, maybe things would have been different if she didn’t come.”

“It was still her decision. Someone else would have died, there’s no point in wondering about the possibilities and daydreaming about it.”

“You’re right wanderer. We’re here now and have no option but to go forward and work towards a better future.”

Zoro nods slightly and listens as Genzo reminiscences about Nami and Nojiko’s upbringing, sharing anecdotes about their unrepentant trouble making streaks. His mind wanders after the mayor retires for the night, about fate and destiny and poetics of the such that Robin liked to read. He flexes his hand and looks at the many callouses across his palm, wondering about the price he has yet to pay.

Come morning he’s boarding another merchant ship and pauses when he hears the urgent cries and spots two girls running towards the docks. Nami has a bulging sack full of mikans, almost the size of her, and Nojiko has an armful of the fruits that most likely fell out of it during their run here. Nami sets down the sack in front of him, panting and smiling.

“Sorry Nami, I don’t have any money on me.”

“Consider this a loan! I’ll collect it with interest the next time we meet.” She sticks out her tongue and winks at him.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.” 

“And I’ll make the best map of the East Blue, I’ll visit all those places you told me about! So don’t get lost out there, okay you geezer?” she says, clutching the new bright dress that Genzo had bought them.

Something in his chest blooms and softens and he kneels down in front of them, ruffling their hair and grinning as they swat his hand away. “You two can do anything you want now.”

The village will forget and recover in time and he is content with the knowledge that two girls will be playing and laughing as children should, carefree and happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *smudges timeline a wee bit and whistles awkwardly*
> 
> Thank you for reading and leaving kudos/comments! <3 I hope you guys like this chapter c: (all these kids deserve GOOD CHILDHOODS weh)


	6. Chapter 6

The _Singing Albatross_ is a massive trading galleon outfitted to withstand sudden and unexpected weather fluctuations and built for the purpose of transporting mass goods between the seas and through the Grand Line. Zoro was lucky to have made it in Loguetown before her departure. The crew consisted of a seasoned bunch with a captain who’s made the journey between the seas for decades and a squadron of marines that kept a vigilant watch. One of the  younger marines looks out at the sea with open fascination as the vessel rocked along the waves towards Reverse Mountain. She stands a few feet away from Zoro with picture perfect posture while he slouches on the railings, ignoring each curious glance she shot his way every now and then. 

“Excuse me but are you from Wano Country?” she finally asks, body slightly turned towards him and expression openly curious. Zoro didn’t want to be completely callous and shrug off her question, despite the insults Sanji often loved to say he did have _some_ manners, but idle chit chat with a marine was one of the last things he wanted to do. 

“Ah, I apologize for the abrupt question. Your clothing looked similar to the descriptions from a book," she raises her hands in an apologetic manner as she spoke. 

Zoro had taken a liking to the fashion of that country during the Strawhats adventure there, an instance that feels so long ago now. When a monsoon brought  rain that was an ever flowing curtain around the land, Luffy had dragged him into a bamboo forest, all laughter as he splashed through puddles that threw mud all over them (neither really cared of the mess) and wrapped his rubber arms tight around Zoro’s body before leaving a trail of soft kisses beginning from his jawline down to scars on his chest, stopping right over his heart with a satisfied hum.

_I really like how Zoro looks in these dresses._

_It’s a gi you airhead._

Luffy stretched up, possessive hands digging into his chest, and pressed a kiss in the corner of his mouth and another and another until he reached Zoro’s smiling mouth and claimed it with a slow, sweet kiss followed by breathless laughter. The rain soaked them to the bone but he felt undeniably warm as he gazed fondly into those brown eyes framed by rivulets of water. 

“I’ve been there for a time,” he replies gruffly after some time and was glad that his voice didn’t betray the emotion flaring in his core, something akin to a beast clawing into his chest and squeezing tight. Maybe even more painful as he had a few previous experiences being mauled and torn. 

The marine opens her mouth as if to ask another question but draws back when her superior call her over. The skies were rapidly darkening when it was clear just minutes ago and the captain of the ship barks out orders to ready for the transition into Reverse Mountain. Zoro grips the railing and stands steady even as the waters turn violent and the winds harsh. The crew moves around efficiently with practiced movements and the dangerous journey that sunk many before was executed in a flawless manner, save for some bumps against the channel walls.

He left the _Singing Albatross_ on the first island they stopped at in the Grand Line. Numerous docks were full of ships of varying sizes and faction, the city itself a vast bustling space with buildings and stores sprawling across it.There was a sensation in his gut pulling, _pulling_ , and twisting urgently whilst the ache in absent space of his right arm intensifies. Instinct raising his proverbial hackles as he stalks around the crowded trading town, eye sweeping over the areas with people constantly coming and going. Then he hears it, echoes of a booming cackle, and immediately turns towards the direction.

 Blackbeard’s distinctive body was hard to mistake as was his voice. The man had an arm around another and raised a bottle to the sky followed with his signature laugh. Whitebeard’s jolly roger was displayed proudly on the back of his shirt and Zoro notices the other person also sported the symbol on their person. Zoro’s hand flew to his weapon and in the corner of his vision he noticed several people flinch and distance themselves from the sheer animosity emanating from him. Teach was oblivious yet it was his companion who glances over, expression a mix of curiosity and wariness.

He could end it here before anything started, drive his blades into that rotten heart and save them from his cruelty and madness. Cold rage settled in his mind as he moves forward, muscles coiled and breath steady. Two steps forward and he halts, all of his senses focusing on a girl running in the alleyways with several people chasing her. It was her gait, the flash of black hair and focused blue eyes that made him pause because he _knew_ who that was.

 Zoro looks back at Blackbeard who met up with more of his crew, his friend kept shooting careful glances his way with a hand fiddling at their gun holster. He hears the faint shouts of the men cornering Robin and he gnashes his teeth and snarls in frustration. That earns him several more pointed looks and more of the Whitebeard pirates glance over. Indecision gnaws at him, here a man who he wanted to bloody with every fibre of his being and there...and there was Robin.

 Robin with that smile that hid the wealth of secrets she hoarded, patient as the mountain as she explained topics and told stories by the firelight with hands that were always there to catch one of them when they stumbled. In the later years of their lives Zoro often sought out her company, the scratching of her quill soothing as she wrote down the history of the world with two cups of tea already cooling on her desk. Their archaeologist, their historian - his family. It wasn’t a choice, never could be because he couldn’t - _wouldn’t-_ choose any other option.

With a deep breath he releases the anger in his core and heads heads towards the direction his senses guide him towards, a last brief look over his shoulder yields Blackbeard staring intently at him with narrow eyes and a grimace.

 Tracking down Robin proved to be somewhat of a challenge with the amount of people crowding in almost every street and corner and he had physically run into several dead ends while trying to navigate the endless maze of turns and twists in the growing dusk. After being stopped by the fifth wall that seemingly rose out of nowhere he fumes and draws out Shuusui and starts hacking away at every obstacle in his path, leaving perfectly sliced rubble and screaming people in his path.

 He finally reaches an abandoned looking warehouse and barrels into the door, ready to strike, and pauses when he discovers bodies of the men with their necks twisted in unnatural angles illuminated by the faint light streaming from the cracked windows. The sound of the pistol firing registers a mere moment before the bullet digs into the floor under him and he immediately ducks for cover as more fly his way.  After several seconds of constant fire he peeks his head over the crate and realizes his mistake when he hears and feels arms growing out of his shoulder and gripping his jaw in a vice.

 Zoro really doesn’t want to hurt Robin in any way but he really needs to get out of this with his neck intact. He drops Shuusui and grips one of the arms and twists it away in the same moment he flings himself backwards and slams the other arm against a steel beam. Her arms flinch and fade away and Zoro uses the brief reprieve to scan around the warehouse. Another volley of shots cause him to dive underneath a table and crawl his way around. Just as he rolls away from a shot one bullet manages to hit him in the worst possible location.

 “Fucking- really Robin?! In my ass?!”

 While she reloads he kicks away the table in what he thinks is her general location and stands up with a snarl. His ass twinges in pain and more than that his pride is injured, an utterly undignified wound that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to recover from. He sprints and grabs Shuusui off the ground and leaps, a little off balance because his _ass cheek_ protests in all sorts of manners, up towards the rafters. He slices the bullets mid-air and lands on the beam some feet away from Robin.

 She has her arms crossed in front of her, eyes narrowed into slits as she inspects him before speaking, “I don’t know you yet you seem persistent on catching me.”

 “Relax, I wanna help you Robin. Not a bounty hunter or anything like that.”

 As a show of trust he slowly sheaths his sword and and raises his arm up, stance relaxing.

 “Then explain why you brought marines rushing into this location because you were rampaging through the town.”

 “Not my fault! This town’s layout made no sense,” he grouses, attention tuning to the two dozen or so marines surrounding the building.

 “They probably knew you were here anyway.”

 “Indeed, those men were Cipher Pol agents. Mr. Swordsman, I’ll wager a deal with you," Robin says as she lowers the gun and looks to the side for a moment before meeting his gaze again. “Help me get out of here and I will help you get off the island. I doubt you want to stay here long.”

 “Sure,” he says without hesitation and something about that easy admission makes her eyes go wide before she schools her expression back to a neutral mask. She looked so terribly young in that moment, Zoro guesses she’s barely past adulthood and not for the first time feels anger lick up his spine because no person deserves to grow up in solitude and constantly fighting for their survival.

 Zoro drops down onto the floor with a grunt, his injury annoyingly reminding him of its presence, and clenches Wado between his teeth before drawing out Shuusui. Turning back to her gracefully descending the beams he tilts his head and speaks around the hilt, “Follow out after me and keep your head low.”

 “I know how to handle myself Mr. Swordsman," she replies coolly, hands sprouting and grabbing discarded weaponry around them.

 As the marines outside yell out Robin’s name and for her to surrender peacefully he barges out, a blur of steel and teeth and cuts down the first handful that were frozen in shock before jumping to a section of gunners. In the background he hears whispers of Robin’s powers and a barrage of bullets hitting a cluster of marines on the other side of the warehouse. He spins and slices more of the marines that try to surround him, pivots and leaps up to slam his knee into a musket-man's chest before slicing his jugular. He hears and feels the displacement of air and turns just in time to parry a strike from a burly marine, the claymore in his arms almost twice his size.

 The battle makes him grin around Wado’s hilt as he assesses his opponent and pushes back with a strength that makes the marine's face pinch together in concentration and disbelief. Zoro suddenly and nimbly steps to the side, causing the marine to stagger forward with a grunt of surprise and doesn’t recover in time for the cut into his heart. Flicking the blood off his blades Zoro looks around and takes stock, noting that most of the marines are still amassed where Robin was. He sprints over to her and leaps at the nearest group of marines, blades singing.

 Robin was holding her own rather spectacularly, ducking behind a ruined wall she returns fire as a distraction while utilizing her fruit powers to take down a few at a time. He makes quick work of the remaining marines and snaps his head up just as Robin shouts at him, “This way Mr. Swordsman!”

 She confidently leads them through dark passages and down, down into the underground of the city while the echoes of marine boots stomp all around them. The stench of the sewers makes him curl his nose but he doesn’t comment on it and focuses his attention on Robin in the darkness. Eventually they stop running, ears peeled for pursuers as they continue at a brisk pace. Every now and then Robin would discreetly look back at him with an unreadable expression and Zoro pretends not to notice the pistol her hand is resting on.

 Maybe minutes, maybe hours later they emerge from the sewers and into a less inhabited part of the island and ahead of them he could make out a faintly lit shanty town.

 “I have a boat docked there and there is also a medic that can take a look at your rather grave injury.” Robin curls her mouth up at the last words as she looks over with eyes dancing with humor.

 “I still can’t believe you hit me _there_. Get a better aim next time.”

He takes a few steps forward and pauses when the sound of a distinct click sounds out from behind him. Slowly he turns and looks down at the gun pointed directly at his chest, his heart.

“Like this?” Her voice is emotionless, blank and her hand is steady.

“Robin, I’m not going to hurt you. Even if you shoot me I’m gonna follow you and make sure you make it out alright.”

 Her eyes flash with fury, mouth drawn tight, “Who do you think you are? No one simply helps someone without a goal in mind. Do you really expect me to believe-” She cuts herself off with a deep breath and squeezes on the trigger but doesn’t release the finger.

 “Nico Robin I don’t care about your past or your enemies. You want to learn about the world and its hidden history, I wanna make sure you can do that because I am your friend,” he replies calmly, sincerely and keeps his posture relaxed. His instincts doesn't scream at him to defend himself, the need to protect his family overwriting all else because he is and always will be their swordsman.

 There’s a tremor running through her arm as she looks at him searchingly, biting down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. It’s her eyes, full of disbelief, anguish, and something entirely else, that make him take a step forward, arm outstretched. He stops when the cold barrel of the gun is pressed directly into his chest but doesn’t pay it attention as he simply stands there in front of her.

 “You’re far more foolish than I thought.” She straightens away and looks him over critically, he still sees some of the pain in the corner of her eyes, in the tightness in her shoulders but she seems to accept whatever is written on his face and lowers the gun.

 “We did make a deal and it's not a habit of mine to back out of any," he says with a grin, folding his arm into his robe.

 Robin walks around him and makes her way towards the shanty, arms crossed over her chest. She murmurs quietly, as if to herself. “I don’t tend to keep my promises Mr. Swordsman.”

 “That’s fine.”

 She freezes mid step and looks back at him with a quick delicate and _real_ smile that she covers with her hand. “Come along before you bleed to death, I fear blood loss has made you delirious. There are, after all, a few vital arteries in your posterior region.”

 Zoro snorts and ambles behind her, smiling despite himself as he gazed up at the night sky and familiar constellations. 

 _Look there’s Zoro’s shark star!_  

 _I thought we were calling that one Chopper’s hat._  

He rubs the age old scar running across his chest and simply breathes despite the heavy longing reverberating within and focuses on the warm feeling those memories illicit instead. Puts one foot in front of the other and keeps going forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robin did say she was good at killing
> 
> Thank you as always for reading, hope you guys liked this one! :D


	7. Chapter 7

Robin doesn't smile often. In the days of sailing with her he can count the occasions when she has with one hand. Honestly he shouldn't be picking up on that as much as he is, especially since he wasn't the best example of a cheerful person in the first place compared to other members of the crew (he dearly misses the sound of laughter and shameless, unburdened delight). Yet Zoro tries, trades witty banter and grumbles in his usual manner. Takes pride when her neutral expression cracks ever so slightly and feels as if his world is a little less bleak when Robin smiles and he sees the ghost of her older self dancing to the sound of mirth in the crinkles around her eyes.

Letting out a jaw cracking yawn he gazes around lazily, the same brilliant blue horizon surrounding them with the sun shining brightly, and leans over the railing to dip his hand in the cool waters. Robin’s boat is decently sized, big enough for two people with some leg room, full of books and not much else. She looks over at him with an almost perplexed expression, eyebrows furrowed down as her hand covers the thoughtful slant of her mouth. Something that he's seen only when she's standing in front of particularly ancient poneglyphs.

“What's wrong?” 

Robin keeps staring at him like he's the world’s most befuddling person, after a few minutes she crosses her legs together and turns her attention back to the documents she was reading. Zoro shrugs and leans back, absentmindedly rubbing his jaw as he stares at the everpresent sea. A large bird cawing overhead makes a bout of nostalgia flit through him, of a time when he and his captain sailed in a patched up dingy with just the two of them in the vast blue world. He's probably been hopelessly smitten since the moment an idiot in a straw hat marched up to him with the seabreeze and a seemingly impossible dream.

“You are a strange man Ronin.”

“Yeah," he replies, phrasing it as neither a question or an answer.

She is leaning forward, elbows resting on her knees with hands under her chin. “How can you rest so easily with the person who tried to kill you only an arms length away?”

“You haven't given me a reason not to,” he says easily as his hand goes back into the sea, the water forming into ribbons around his fingers as he stretches them out.

Robin looks away with a faraway expression again, a habit that’s been forming whenever he says something odd, her hand is delicately covering her lower face with shadows in her bright blue eyes. After some hours when the sun is setting low she stands up and points at a distant island. “There is a large trading port on that island, you can find passage elsewhere when we dock.” She doesn’t meet his gaze, not entirely, her eyes flit over him as if waiting for something to happen. He’s not sure what it could be.

“If you want me to leave you can just say so.”

There’s a tense pause as Zoro steers the rudder, waiting for a reply that won’t be coming for some time. As they land on the island he follows Robin out on the docks, scarce of people due to the late hour. He reaches out a hand to tap her on the shoulder and draws back the moment he realizes his action. It doesn’t go unnoticed by her as she turns her head slightly stares at him with obvious tension. Zoro walks up to her side and calmly says, “Look, I’ll always be here if you need me. No matter what. You don’t have to go at everything alone.”

Arms crossed, her hands clench into her elbows for a brief moment before she straightens up, flipping her hair over one shoulder, “Then you can accompany to this restaurant.”

Their footsteps resound on the docks as they walk and he wants to reach out and do...something to comfort her. He’s never been good at it, the soft words and gestures when his method of dealing with any problems were to identify them and then fell them. He doesn’t often question the why’s, it was not for him to understand and judge the reasons behind one’s actions, he simply reacted to them and dealt with it as he needed to. Probably why he was so shitty at chess since his usual strategy is to make sharp and unnecessary movements with his pieces, only looking at the initial risk.  

As he spots more marine whites milling around the crowds and patrolling the area he has some idea on the reason they’re here and an inkling to why she is this on edge, in the distance he spots the shadow of a garrison looming over them. She guides him around, seemingly in circles as the streets get darker and darker until they reach a door under the stairs of a ruined building. Three knocks later they’re ushered inside and sat in a dimly lit corner booth. There are others in the room as well, each table hidden behind a shoji with shadows filtering through the paper walls.

“You’ve been here before I take it?”

“On occasion, the paella they make here is quite superb.”

He makes an inquisitive, guttural sound when she orders them their food from the waiter that appeared from the shadows and left just as quietly. Ale and grilled fish for him, paella and a dry red wine for her.

“Robin-” He starts but stops when she smiles, in that deceptively fake manner with cold eyes and flash of teeth.

“Would you like to hear about the story I read earlier? It’s quite a fascinating take on humanity and the individual’s reaction upon seeing unspeakable horrors.”

Zoro sits back and relaxes each of his muscles one by one and tries to ignore the discomforting feeling of something being off as he listens. To a story where the main character wakes up one day and discovers the world is barren of life except for themselves and slowly their mind teeters towards the edge of madness. There is a lot of prose and hidden meanings underneath the words but he doesn't listen to the story wholly, his attention focused on Robin as she tells it. The ramrod straight spine, fluid hands that are ever in motion, and the quick flicker of her eye around the room every time a noise is heard.

The food is decent, the drink is hardy.

“Mr. Swordsman? You don't look too well, perhaps that was not an ideal story to tell over dinner.”

Zoro rubs his temples and tries to ward away the pulsing headaches and accompanied dizziness, “I'm fine," he manages to grit out as he sits back in his chair, head tilting upward to the ceiling.

His head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton and iron, impossible to focus on anything as all he could do was breathe and stare up at the latticework of hairline cracks running across the ceiling and down to the walls. His heart rate is slowing, he realizes as an afterthought, the beat of it reverberating through his head like a drum.

“I'll get you some water.” She sounds like she talking from beyond a chasm, voice faint and desolate. A chair screeches against the tile floor and a dull pain blossoms on the back of his head.

~*~*~

_“Zoro, as your doctor I worry about your pain tolerance. You often ignore what you consider small injuries that could lead to bigger and even fatal problems.”_

_“They haven’t so far, don’t sweat it so much Chopper.”_

He wakes up immediately on alert even as the mother of all headaches pounds away at the base of his skull. The room they’re holding him is as small as a closet, his swords are missing, and his arm is chained to the wall. There is a glass of water set near him and he drinks it greedily, a salve to the uncomfortable dryness in his mouth. After a moment of gathering his thoughts Zoro tests the strength of the chain and snorts when he feels it straining with one pull. Instead of escaping out of it right away he quietly walks over to the steel reinforced door and presses his ear against it, listening to the murmurs of the two guards outside.

“Can you believe that woman? Bringing in an outsider like that.”

“Did she give the boss a reason?”

“Nah, dead quiet on that. Boss ain’t too happy since we got no use for a lame animal like that. We just gotta wait for Nico Robin to come back and the boss will deal with them both. Don’t get why we’re guarding this door anyways, Val pumped him with enough narcotics to put knock out a whale. Surprised he didn’t die.”

“Would you rather be upstairs and dealing with the marines? Take nap if you’re that bored.”

“You’re still fucking on about that?”  
  
Zoro tunes them out and steps back, tugs and measures the length of the chain for a moment. He wraps around the loose length of it around his arm and pulls once, twice and the walls crack. One more pull and the chunk of the brick wall comes rumbling loose with the base of the chain, he grins even as the dust coats him. When the alarmed guards open up the door he swings the makeshift flail forward and hits the first one straight in the chest and the force of it flings him back into the hallway. Before the other could react Zoro leaps forward and slams him in the torso with his chain wrapped elbow and lands right on top of him. With his hand clawing into the man’s throat he grins, all teeth and jagged edges, “Where are my swords?”

“Do-down the hall on the right in the-the armory!” He’s clawing at Zoro’s hand with his own trembling ones, eyes shot open and voice quivering with deep rooted and overwhelming fear.

Zoro picks up the man and slams him roughly onto the ground, knocking him unconscious,.“Thanks.”

The hallways are wide and he looks both way before picking a direction, the chain dragging behind him with an ominous rattle. After the fifth door he’s kicked open he finally finds the so called armory, full of guns and more guns. His swords are lying on a shelf, seemingly innocuous and relief floods through him at finding them untouched. Zoro clamps Wado around his teeth and cuts through the manacle on his wrist, muttering under his breath.

Robin had him knocked out of the way for a reason and not even for a moment does he consider the thought that she sold him out. She didn’t look like she wanted to come here and gave him an opportunity to leave, no strings attached. Whatever trouble she’s landed herself into he has full confidence that she can solve her way out of. Robin was- is resourceful, dangerously so. However, she is his family whether she knows of it or not, and he wasn’t going to let her do all the work alone.

Zoro breathes out and reaches outward with his senses, feels the aura of each person until he finds Robin’s distinctive presence near the middle of the island surrounded by many others. He slashes open the walls and makes his way over, belatedly realising the marine garrison is located in the center of the island.

Alarm bells are already piercing through the night with the entire thing lit up top to bottom, the marines are swarming around the garrison shouting out orders and reports. He stretches out his consciousness out again and makes sure Robin isn’t in the first tower he comes across, satisfied he draws out Shuusui. Zoro leaps up, spinning and builds up momentum, tightening his muscles before he cuts the tower clean in half with a strike that shakes the earth. Haki thrums through his arm as he smirks at the shriek of marines and lets himself loose on them.

 _A demon!_ They cry out into the night. 

~*~*~

“Mr. Swordsman, I’m surprised to see you here.”

Zoro turns and sees her exiting out of the main building with measured steps, gun still smoking from the last remaining marine she just shot. Somehow the entire garrison ended up being on fire and in pieces, bodies strewn around without care.

“Told you I wouldn’t leave unless you said so, I’m annoying that way.” He straightens up and sheaths his sword away.

“I see that now," she says with a sigh, an extra arm holding a rather official looking briefcase. Robin regards him carefully but doesn’t raise the gun and eventually her shoulders lower, relax, “I assume you dealt with the gang members that had you locked up as well?”

Zoro snorts. “More or less, was in a hurry to get here first. Were they friends of yours?”

“No, not at all. They had an agreement with the marines here that allowed them to peddle their _goods_ without trouble,” says Robin, disapproval barely hidden. “We should be going, the commander managed to hail the nearest fleet and our route off the island will be cut off before long.”

There’s a pause as if she’s waiting for him to disagree.

“Lead the way.”

The corners of her lips quirk up, it’s a small but an overjoyed reaction by the way her eyes shine as well. Almost automatically Zoro returns the gesture with a smile of his own.

Robin points at her left cheek as they run towards the docks, “You’ve got a little bit of blood right there.”

He rubs away at the spot and grimaces when he feels it’s tacky consistency sticking onto his skin.

“Ah, I fear you’ve just made it worse," she says, amused.

“Whatever.”

There are a dozen or so of the gang member surrounding the dock entrance but before they could even begin monologuing bullshit Robin is already dispatching half of them and he just knocks off the other half into the sea. Under the cover of darkness they slip away as the outline of battleships near the island.

“I underestimated you Mr. Swordsman. You are impossibly driven but I don’t...I do not understand why you’re risking yourself for me.”

The winds were blowing in their favor and the sun was steadily rising over the horizon, wisps of brilliant and soft colors bleeding into night’s canvas. Robin was sitting in the shadows of the cabin, glaring at the direction they left from. Getting a read on her emotions was a monumental task on it’s own but Zoro is deeply and intimately familiar with anger. The kind that narrowed his focus, made him feel disconnected and cold with a raging fire shaking through his core.

“It’s the right thing to do.”

“Destroying marine bases and making yourself an affiliate with the ‘Devil Child’? I’m sure you have a better reason than just a decision based on what is right. Are you seeking leverage? Information?” She’s shrinking inward, voice full of spite.

“Someone very important to me asked to keep an eye on you. I don't need a better reason than that.”

That draws her attention to him, an open and raw expression that she hides in the palm of her hands. He doesn’t feel like talking anymore so he sits down by the rudder again and stretches out his legs, rests his arm over his chest and gazes up at the sky and its shifting colors, warm reds and pinks, and counts out fading stars.  

By mid-morning Robin has already read through the contents of the briefcase, her arms were folded over the table as she stares ahead, thoughts lost in the clouds. Concerned and a little worn from the memories whirling around in his head he leans forward and asks, “What’s on your mind?”

Robin looks over at him, head tilting slightly as she considers her words. “There’s a wealth of documents here that could topple alliances and diplomatic agreements the World Government has made with the nations yet none of it is what I truly seek,” Newly sprouted hands gather up the papers and store them into one of the trunks as she twists her real hands, fingers pressing white indents into the skin and bone, ”Sometimes I want to prove them right by becoming monster they branded me...but I am not that cruel, not yet.”

“You have justification.”

“Everyone uses justifications and excuses for their actions. They destroy an entire island and turn around to say it was for the greater peace of the world, their true justice," She breaths in deeply, body trembling as she holds the air trapped for long seconds before exhaling slowly, "I miss my mother but my memories of her are slowly fading, everything that I knew burned to cinders and now all I feel is absolutely nothing.”

Her voice is shaky, heavy with emotion as she hunched over the table. It’s her words that catch him off guard because he knows the jarring sensation of holes appearing in memories, knows that each time he tries to recall a specific detail it will get lost and hazy. More than death, more than any other pain he fears forgetting as new experiences threaten to overwrite the old memories of his friends. Zoro’s never had to give it thought before, simply expecting to die along them (with Luffy) when the time came but now the startling realization makes hims recall the millions of mundane and little things the Straw Hats did day to day, and he understands in an almost detached manner that those instances will fade away.

Zoro swallows the dread filling his throat and stands up slowly, staring down into the deep blue sea, “You’re a historian aren’t you, Robin?” he manages to say despite the weight crushing his chest, like the sharp pressure of the dark oceans. “You can preserve the lost knowledge.”

“You seem to know far more than you let on Mr. Swordsman," she says after a while, thoughtful and understanding and doesn’t press further as she discreetly wipes her face.

Later, much later when he’s calmed down and dozing off he hears the faint scratches of a quill against parchment and blinks open his eye to see Robin writing by the lamplight. For a moment he’s disoriented, expecting to see a different scene and fights down the brief disappointment. She looks up and smiles softly and he nods in greeting, feels something loosen and quiet in his chest.

“Your important person, will I meet them one day?”

“Yeah, you will.”

He rests his chin on his hand and looks out a the ever-constant and comforting horizon and smiles, a little ruefully and a little fondly, wind blowing through his hair. As long as the sea exists and the world continues to turn he could never truly forget about his family, about the person who claimed his heart so completely with that distinct and confident laugh that echoes in his mind clear as a hundred bells.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not entirely certain about this chapter but i hope you dear readers like it
> 
> Thank you for reading and feedback is well appreciated C:


	8. Strawhat intermission 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the East Blue kids have been up to.

_“Whatever makes you hesitate, cut it off and leave it behind you.”_

Nami wonders how she got into this mess in the first place, all the steps that have lead up to this moment, as she glared down at two the idiots. Oh yeah because she decided to stick her nose into places she shouldn't have gone to. It all started after that wandering swordsman came and left those years ago, ending a nightmare in a single swoop. Exploring the local islands could only hold her attention for so long and after a few years she was sailing to farther away places in the East Blue, selling her maps and meeting new people.

On a day when she felt a storm brewing over the horizon she docked at a small secluded beach. The skies were rapidly turning dark and grey with thunder rumbling as gusts of wind picked up. Nami securely ties off her boat, a prize she won from a cards tournament despite being the youngest there, and carefully walks up the path.

The bushes rustle and a boy suddenly pops out of it with a war cry, curly hair full of foliage and a slingshot in hand, wearing worn overalls with a collection of patchwork stitches and grease.

“Ha-halt! I'm Captain Usopp, leader of a thousand war-warriors! None may enter the village without approval!” he yells out, voice cracking at some points.

“Captain Usopp are you heartless enough to let a girl sit out in the wilderness to brave a storm like this?”

He straightens up and stammers as he looks around, trying to find the appropriate words before finally shuffling out of the bushes. “Captain Usopp is an honorable warrior of the sea! This way for shelter yo-young lady!”

“You can call me Nami," she says, smiling mischievously when he trips over his feet.

‘Captain’ Usopp guides her up towards a small village, weaving stories about his long history of conquests and battles with an air of bravado she's familiar with. Under Arlong’s thumb lying well meant the difference between life and death and Nami had to perfect the act of it quickly to meet his impossible demands. Recognizing a fellow liar wasn't a hard feat, especially one so nervous. His eyes were always shifting side to side, fingers fiddling with his pockets whenever he's not gesturing wildly, and the expectant pause after a ridiculously high tale, as if he's waiting for her to call him out on it.

“Welcome to Syrup Village! The Pirate King himself dined at this inn once!” he exclaims cheerfully, thunderclouds growling and rumbling above them.

The swordsman mentioned this island and the long nosed boy and not for the first time she questions the significance of it. Usopp was friendly enough, holding open the door to the inn with a nervous smile. The inside was filled with laughing adults with plenty drinks and food, lighthearted music coming from the two man band by the corner.

“Welcome to Meshi! Pull up a seat by the fire oh Usopp! Did you run into a pirate?” An older woman says the last part like it's a common thing, smiling at them from behind the counter as she waves them over.

“No ma'am, I’m an explorer. I gonna make a map of the world one day!”

The woman clasps her hands together and laughs before pouring them both a bowl of stew, “My what a wonderful dream young lady. Now sit, sit eat. Despite what Usopp might’ve told you no Pirate King has ever eaten here but I think you’ll find the food will fill you up regardless. You too Usopp, every time you come by I think you’ve grown skinnier.”

“Thank you ma’am," they both say at the same time before digging in.

“You’re gonna explore the whole world? That’s awesome. I’m dreaming of becoming a brave warrior of the sea and see the world too!”

“Oh really? It sounded like you’ve been to a lot of places already,” Nami says teasingly as she waves her spoon at him.

“We-well I wanna see more of it! You know, there’s so much out there. Have you heard of the-the giant warriors of Elbaf?!”

He goes into explaining the grandeur of the giants and their culture with such enthusiasm that Nami listens intently despite the likely embellishments. Talking with Usopp was surprisingly easy, he lied openly but there was no malice behind it. He asks about her maps and she shows them off with a proud smile, especially when the old woman wanders over and exclaims over them as well.

“You should stay a few days here Nami! The map is a little off with the islands around here,” Usopp remarks as he points at a few sections of it.

“I doubt I can sail out with this storm going on too,” Nami sighs and glances outside, the rain pouring down without end, before leaning forward. “Ma’am, how much for a room?”

“Tell you what young lady, grant me one of your maps when you’re done here and we can call it even. Usopp, you’ll show her around won’t you?”

“Ye-yes ma’am! Leave it to me, the bravest warrior!”

Usopp scurries away when another villager calls him over about a task and she watches him clean up the vacant tables one by one. The innkeeper slides forward a cup of something warm and looks over at Usopp as well, fond smile turning a little sad.

“Are you his mother?”

“Oh no dear, she passed away a few years ago. Poor boy doesn’t have either of his parents around, the dad’s a pirate you see. Still, it’s good to see him so lively with someone his age,” she says as she wipes off the counter. "Our village is a quiet place, set down your worries and rest a while here.”

Staying on an island for a little bit would be nice, she thinks, sailing alone did take its toll. Maybe making another friend wouldn’t be a bad idea after all, Nami smiles as she cradles the drink between her hands, warming the tips of her fingers, and listens to the rain and Usopp’s stories with a new understanding.

~*~

When the storm finally blows over two days later Usopp was acting as her personal guard and assistant, pointing out millions of places they could go to on the island to get a better view of all it’s features while carrying around her cartography gear.

“Oi Usopp how did you tell that this area was off on the map?” Nami asks as she jots down the latitude of the curve of the cliff, tongue sticking out in concentration as she calculates just the right angle.

“Oh, I like to do come here and do sketches sometimes. No-nothing fancy like your maps of course!” he mumbles, scratching the back of his head abashedly.

Nami turns her head and observes him fiddle with her equipment before glancing through the scope of the dumpy level. She’s seen him be confident and boisterous in the village, running around interacting with the others but here at this secluded stretch of land and sea he acts meek, unsure. At her silence he looks over and tilts his head, “Did-did I say something wrong?”

She shakes her head and says with every ounce of genuine interest and warmth, “No, you have a really good eye for detail Usopp. I would love to see your drawings when we’re done here.”

Usopp stutters out an affirmative noise, almost knocking the equipment into the sea with his flailing, and smiles. He’s not so bad, she realizes, and happily explains the details and the process she applies to map making as she draws out the sketches of the island. The people she’s met through her travels end up with their eyes glazed over when she’s going into specifics but he pays attention, asking questions and makes her laugh when he jokes about the toponymy of the Gecko islands. _You think Syrup Village is bad? Wait til you visit Jam Town and Grenadine Bay!_

 _  
_ It takes a few weeks to make an up to date map of the islands and Usopp, ever brave and steady despite his initial fear, accompanied her in the brief trips around the area. It’s fun being around him, it’s _easy_ , there’s no expectations. Just two teenagers existing and exploring their place in the world. One day they sneak into a fancy manor, the only manor in the village, with Nami leading in as Usopp whispers protests and anxiously follows.

“This is Kaya’s home! Didn’t you see the guards outside?!” he nearly faints when she’s picking open the lock to the back entrance, and glances around nervously for the patrolling guards.

“We’re just gonna take a quick look! No one will know we were here. Now shh!”

The door swings open smoothly without a creak and she slips in without a sound, wincing a little when the door suddenly slams shut from a gust of wind as Usopp tumbles in. “Well, maybe no one noticed that.”

“Nami…” Usopp whines out a complaint from his spot on the floor, voice high and full of apprehension.

Footsteps echo from the hallway and she immediately reaches over to grab Usopp’s hand and drags them both to hide behind cloth covered boxes, covering his mouth as he wheezes. Nami leans out and turns her head just slightly and spots a white gown and a young blond girl, probably around their age, glancing around with wide eyes with a book clutched protectively over her chest.

“Who’s there?”

Usopp manages to wrench himself out of Nami’s grip and rolls out, head already bowing to the floor with arms raised up, “I’m so sorry Kaya! We didn’t mean to break in or anything! The-there was a giant flying dragon chasing us!”

“Usopp! You know you can come in the front door silly. And who’s your friend?” she says, smile friendly and kindness in her eyes.

“I’m Nami, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Kaya, pleasure to make your acquaintance. Would you two like to join me for tea? I was just doing some light reading when I heard the door slam shut.”

“Sure," Nami replies, the thrill of sneaking around put away for the moment.

The fact that Kaya didn’t yell in distress and gladly offered them her hospitality put her high in Nami’s books and she follows her upstairs, Usopp trailing behind and launching into the tale of the dragon that was chasing them. They sit around in a room with high windows and covered with bookcases wall to wall, a man with a fluffy head of white hair serving them tea and snacks with only an amused quirk of his brow when he discovers the unexpected guests.

“You make maps Nami? You should show some of them to my father, he’s a businessman and I’m sure he would love to purchase them!”

“Her maps are so great Kaya, we’ll bring a few of them next time.”

The butler, introduced as Merry, eventually and very politely asks them to retire after hours of them chatting and swapping tales, as the young miss must have her rest. _You two have such amazing stories, the one about the wandering swordsman was so suspenseful Nami._

“You should’ve introduced us earlier Usopp, Kaya’s so nice.”

“Sorry, I was gonna! Then you decided to break in so casually and everything happened so fast,” he tilts his head up with a sigh and shoves his hands into his pockets as they walk back to his home. “That story about that swordsman, it was true, wasn’t it?”

Nami chews on her lip for a moment, “Some of it.” She’d glossed over and swapped out key details but she kept the character the same.

“That’s so cool, I really wanna meet people like him out there.”

“Well you are, aren’t you? Captain Usopp the brave warrior of the sea.”

“Of course I will, I _am_ Captain Usopp! But maybe not right now?” He trails off with a wince and she smirks before shoving him forward and running past him, yelling that he’s it. Usopp sputters and chases after her, the absolute villain, as the villagers look on with laughter.

Some days later she’s adding the finishing touches on of one of her maps in Usopp’s home and makeshift workshop. Kaya’s father did take a look at her maps and proudly exclaimed that he would be willing to buy every single of her works.

“How’s this look to you Nami?”  
  
She peeks at the map he’s working on and slaps his shoulder ecstatically, “That’s amazing Usopp!”

“You did all the work on this Nami! I’m just-just adding in the colors.”

“Don’t sell yourself so short, it looks great and that’s final," she says warmly.

The long nosed boy did have talent when it came to art, the expressions, the lines, and all the colors he used were bold and unapologetic, and collaborating with him to make colorful maps of the regions was an absolutely brilliant idea. A companionable silence falls between them in the room, she’s looking at a larger map of the East Blue and mulls over where to go next, fingers tapping over the corners of the table.

“You’re lea-leav-leaving tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah,” Nami glances over and sees his shoulders droop, the brush in his hand going slack for a moment. "You can join me if you wanna, Captain Usopp.”

“Realy?! I mean, I will gladly ac-accompany you in this quest! For it would be dishonorable to let a young lady sail alone in the dangerous seas!”

She laughs into her hand when he trips over the stool in his haste to jump up and pose, surprising herself with the fact that no, she really doesn’t mind the company when she thinks about it. The innkeeper stocks them up with enough supplies to weigh down her boat a good few inches into the sea and they disembark come dawn’s first light.

“Bye ma’am! We’ll come back soon.”

“Don’t get into too much trouble out there you two!”

They probably won’t, both of them averse to conflict in general. Preferring words and trickery to get past obstacles. Usopp squeaks from his side of the boat when he thinks he sees a shadow of a sea king swim under them and she listens to him tell a story about the time when he caught one bare-handed to bolster his courage. Nami smiles because despite sounding afraid he didn’t sound like he regretted his choice.

“Aaah! It’s gonna eat us!”

“That’s just a crab Usopp, throw it back.”

~*~

The old man was such a relentless slave driver, kicking him out of the kitchen and ordering him to scrape the barnacles off the _Baratie’s_ sides with a damned _spoon_ because he messed up the flambé. The one time he makes a mistake he gets punished like he burnt down the kitchen. His head wasn't in the clouds and he wasn't thinking about the pretty girl who said he was cute.

_She said he was cute!_

“Oi Sanji, you're stalling on your hot date with those barnacles.”

“Shut up Patty!”

The older cook just laughs as he walks back inside the kitchen and Sanji spots Carne’s ugly snickering mug before the door closes shut. He taps his shoes against the deck in aggravation before turning to walk towards the railing. Sanji hops up and  sits down, legs outstretched over the sea and imagines for a moment that he’s walking through the air. Instead of starting the hellish and impossible task he twirls the spoon between his fingers, focusing on the repetitive motions to keep the utensil from dropping for some minutes. The dinner rush was coming soon and the old man will eventually crack and drag him back to the kitchen to help cook, the stubborn goat. Besides, Patty loved cleaning off the barnacles with that ridiculously giant spatula of his anyway.

Sanji tosses the spoon up and grabs it midair, then leans forward to tap it against the railing as he gazes out at the sea. Despite the clear morning a thick mist of fog was rolling in, blocking the view of the gorgeous blue waters. He jumps slightly and drops the spoon, damn the old goat was going to chew him out for that, when he thinks he hears screaming coming from a little ways away.

He makes his way to the other side of the ship, near the front where the echoes of the screams are originating from and peers out.

“It’s a gi-gi-giant goldfish! We’re gonna be eaten!”

“Oh my god! I’m sorry I doubted you Usopp!”

“Oi! Are you guys okay?” he yells out and as he waits for a reply he sees a faint boat-like shape taking form in the distance.

“The goldfish just talked! We’re so dead Nami! I’m too young to be eaten like this!”

“Wait, I don’t think that’s a fish.”

 “It's not, you just came across the _Baratie!_ Sail forward a little bit and you should see the docks.”

 They talk among themselves in hushed and frantic voices, too faint to make anything out, but he jumps down anyway to see what kind of idiots thought the restaurant was a live goldfish. _Ridiculous_ . A small boat appears from the mists and he sees two teenagers, a curly haired and long nosed boy, and a stunning young lady with the loveliest hair color and beautiful brown eyes. Sanji chokes on nothing but air and _instantly_ feels his hands get clammy.

 “It is really a ship, wow," the curly haired boy says with awe as he adjusts his bandana.

 Sanji wills his body to not be so gangly and awkward as he walks forward, catching the rope that the girl tosses over and quickly ties the ship secure. With a dazzling smile he kneels down and raises his arm up, “Not even the stars could rival your decadence my lady! May I have your name o my sweet mademoiselle.”

 As he's reaching to kiss her hand she nimbly steps around him, giving him a pointed, annoyed look, “Ugh, don't do that. You sound just like a bad drama actor. You shouldn't be talking to a thirteen year old like that anyway.”

 Maybe he did lay it on too thickly, Sanji stands up at a loss, unsure about what he should do next when he realizes her words, “Wait you're thirteen? And sailing alone?”

 “She’s not alone! I, Captain Usopp, the brave warrior of the-the sea is escorting her.”

 “A brave warrior who got scared of an oversized goldfish. You too still look like kids,” Sanji says, tone condescending.

 Usopp frowns but doesn't look to reply, yet. Scoffing Sanji turns his attention back to the girl who is looking around thoughtfully, arms crossed across her chest, one ink stained finger tapping at her chin before she speaks, “You don't look that much older either. What is this place exactly anyway?”

 “It is the _Baratie,_ the best restaurant in the East Blue.

 At Sanji’s answer she turns and seems to inspect him again, those pretty eyes flicking up and down with deliberate care. Even when she was glaring at him she was still so...beautiful, maybe more so.  _She is thirteen,_ his brain reminds him helpfully and he winces. 

 “Ooh a restaurant, let's eat here Nami! I've been so hungry since our supplies got, er, lo-lost.” Usopp audibly gulps and hesitantly glances over to her.

 “The boat was capsized Usopp, not much we could have done," she says softly.

 By the sounds of it the two of them have been sailing without food or water for who knows how many days and Sanji mentally kicks himself when he finally takes a closer look (thin dried lips, shallow cheeks, and the outline of ribs sticking out from beneath their shirts). He steps back right as the boy stumbles onto the deck and reaches out with a hand to keep him from planting face down into the wood. Shit, he should’ve noticed their state immediately.

 “Oi, you two are hungry and this is a restaurant. Come inside," he says and leads the way, holding the door open and watching them carefully walk in.

 Sanji nods at the host, “Seat these two guests by the back booths, I'll take care of them.” He continues his way into the kitchen and rolls up his sleeves, cleaning his hands under scalding hot water and hears the familiar steps of his mentor coming closer.

 “Oi eggplant who said you can come back in my kitchen?” The hard kick connects to his back but Sanji doesn't even buckle as he dries his hands and snarls back, “I'll get to it later you old goat, I got guests to feed."

 He turns to stare at Zeff and knows that the head cook understands by the way he closes his eyes and nods ever so slightly, old memories haunting them both (eighty five long, empty days). Sanji walks past him and begins preparing the meal, head full of ideas and ingredients for recipes best for the situation.

 “When you're done with that you're gonna clean the kitchen tonight too, you brat.”

 “You're just being a lazy old man!”

 “What have I told you about talking back? Keep your back straight!” Zeff slaps his spine as he walks past and gruffly barks out threats veiled as orders at the rest of the eavesdropping chefs.

 Sanji makes mostly soup and soft dishes as to not aggravate their stomachs even further. He couldn't help but smile every time he steps out to get their plates to see them tearfully, joyously eating the food without wasting a morsel. The color is returning to their faces already and he feels so glad, so very relieved that they made it here.

 “Where were you two sailing from by the way?” he asks as he’s refilling their waters.

 “Gecko islands, where I'm from! We wanted to travel to another island but got lost when a sto-storm hit us.”

 “I'm sorry Usopp, I should've seen it coming sooner. Your first time at sea and it ended up like this…” Nami mumbles, eyes cast downward and Sanji wants to- _needs_ to do something to comfort her. Yet, she voiced against his touch before so he ends up hovering around them, tongue tied.

 “It-it’s okay, it wasn’t your fault at all Nami! It turned out fine, we’re alive and we’re okay!” Usopp frantically says, motioning soothingly with his hands and reaches over to gently pat her shoulder.

 There’s a moment of quiet as they all hold their breaths in the isolated booth, Sanji places the pitcher down and kneels by her side, “He’s right. Sometimes the seas can be cruel without warning, without notice. But you survived to live another day, isn’t that something worth being happy about?”

 Nami, with watery eyes and a gentle smile, looks between them and breathes in deeply, “Thank you, both of you,” she turns to Sanji with an outstretched palm. “We haven’t introduced ourselves properly, I’m Nami.”

 "I’m Usopp. Captain Usopp if you wanna be official.”

 “Sanji, I’m one of the cooks here. It’s nice to meet you two," he says and places a chaste kiss against her knuckles.

 She draws her hand back, looking unaffected by the gesture,“Your cooking is amazing Sanji! I can’t thank you enough for feeding us.”

 “Ah, it’s no problem at all," he replies lamely, she sounds so genuinely appreciative that Sanji fights the blush heating up his cheeks. He was the one who was supposed to be wooing here!

 Usopp chimes his thanks as well before launching into the tale of their voyage and Sanji listens. Eventually he joins them at the table and the three of them share warm tea and stories even as the restaurant closes for the night. He sees Zeff at some point but the old man just strokes his beard as he watches them, shaking his head in amusement before going back into the kitchen.

 When the two start yawning he shows them the extra guests rooms and bids them a good night's rest. Instead of going to his own room Sanji wanders out on deck and spots the old goat by the side railing, cigarette in hand.

 “Oi eggplant, shouldn't you be in bed?”

 “You're the one who needs the rest old man.”

“I'll outlive you yet, brat. Interesting strays you brought in tonight," Zeff gruffly replies.

 “That's what this restaurant is here for, unless you forgot.”

 Zeff hasn't, it would go against every gnarled bone in his body to turn away hungry sailors, whether they be marines or pirates, and just charges them with cleaning work when they can't afford to pay. Some of them decide to stay, others leave.

 “Don't lecture me about shit we both know, brat,” he leans over and slaps Sanji’s back again, “And quit slouching like a thug so much, it's like I gotta tie a nail board to you.”

 “You quit it you old fart! I'll stand the damn way I want," Sanji retorts and folds his elbows on the railing. “I can't believe I'm being raised by a pirate who nags me about posture.”

 The old man snorts before taking a drag of his cigarette, releasing it in a plume of smoke from his nose as he taps away the ashes into the sea. He reaches over and ruffles Sanji’s hair before lightly shoving him away.

 "Go to sleep, eggplant. You got a long day ahead of you.”

 “Don't catch a cold out here old man. You'll be insufferable,” Sanji says, fond and exasperated.

 Zeff waves him off and continues to stare out into the sea and Sanji has a guess of what he's reminiscing about. A shared dream of an all encompassing blue.

~*~

 During their stay at the _Baratie_ Zeff found out that the two kids had great talent and requested them to do posters with a map of the restaurant's location as a form of payment. Sanji makes jabs about the old man’s soft nature and dodges the kicks aimed at his face as he snickers, the plate of food in his hand still perfect and undisturbed as he dances around the kitchen to avoid Zeff’s kicks.

 Some days later Sanji stumbles on those two in the early morning, a few hours before sunrise, preparing their little boat for departure. He stops a few feet away from the docks, hands shoved in his pockets and hair still mussy from sleep, and yawns loudly before drawling out his words, “Planning on leaving without a word?”

 “Sanji! No-nope, we’re not. We're just making sure it's good to go," Usopp hastily replies.

 “And the bag of food you got there?”

 Nami and Usopp share a look, one of guilt morphing into shame.

 “We just needed a little bit to get to the island, we were gonna come back and pay you guys back,” Nami says as she rubs her arm and glances away.

 “You guys could’ve just asked," he says sharply.

 “I didn’t want to steal anything but you’ve been so kind already, it wouldn’t be fair to ask for more.”

 His ire slips away, pity and understanding taking place, Nami did seem like the type who didn’t like being indebted to anyone and Usopp was as guileless as one could get. Sanji breathes in deep, exhaling a cloud of warm air into the chill winds before spinning on his heel and walking back inside.

 “Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Wait here and don’t even dare to sneak away. The _Baratie_ can catch up with you in no time.”

 He hears Usopp squeak at his tone and Sanji grins as he closes the door behind him. He changes quickly in his room and runs down to gather the necessary supplies for a trip at sea from the pantry, enough for three people and then some for several days. Just as he hears the old goat’s distinct footsteps coming from upstairs Sanji slips back outside, sack of food on his shoulders, and runs over to the two of them.

 “Stealing is food is the worst thing you can do but-” He throws the supplies into the boat, “-since I’m coming with you it’s _technically_ not that.”

 “Sanji, you’re such an…” Nami doesn’t finish her sentence as she bursts into giggles.

 The three of them finish preparing the boat for the trip and just as they’re casting off Zeff slams open the doors and stomps over, “Oi, brat! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

 Sanji would be hard pressed not to say fumes were coming out of his head.

 “I’ll be back old man! Don’t sink the ship in the meantime!” he yells back and feels giddy joy bubble through his chest. As far as stupid and sudden decisions went, he thinks this one was probably the best one yet.

 “You little shit! You’ll be scrubbing pots and pans until the end of your days, you hear?!”

 “Bye Mr. Zeff! We’ll bring back Sanji later!”

 The little boat, just big enough for the three of them, sails true and fast over the waves and Sanji throws his head back and laughs just as the dawn’s first light graces the horizon.

 " _Should we go after him chef?”_

  _“Feh, leave him. He’s around that age where kids are rebellious and stupid.”_

 ~*~

 When Nami announces that they’ve reached their destination Usopp thought they were heading towards the large looking city with giant walls and a large sprawling dock. The sudden spike of apprehension with a little dash of excitement eases away when she steers them towards the other side of the island, seemingly barren of civilization at first until he spots windmills spinning in the distance. If he’s being honest, he really wants to see what a busy port city looks and feels like, but maybe later when he’s not feeling so queasy thinking about the sheer amount of people that could be there. Maybe he could ask Nami and Sanji to join him later on.

Sailing with Nami was fun, she was already so experienced with handling the rough seas and the warm zephyrs, and talking to her to was naturally easy, like she was a long lost sibling or something. After Sanji invited himself into their two man crew he was apprehensive at first (he was taller and bigger) but the other teen was so well versed in ocean life that Usopp warmed up to him eventually, inevitably maybe, especially in such close quarters. Sanji often points out various fish and speaks to them about the many ways they could be cooked and prepared, and Usopp would be lying through his teeth to say Sanji wasn’t a great cook already. He could make an amazing meal without the need of fire, which was pure sorcery in Usopp’s opinion. 

They dock at the village, sun still high up in the sky, Usopp feels both homesick and curious as they step off the boat and take a look around. He’s never been this far away, or been away for so many days in the first place, and puts away the worrying thought of pirates and village disasters in the back of his mind. 

“Nami, what are we doing here by the way?” Sanji asks. 

“Someone mentioned this place once, I just wanted to find out why.” 

“Maybe they meant the big-bigger town with those walls?” 

Usopp jumps in place as the air suddenly fills with a distant, but quickly approaching, sound of someone yelling. Frozen mid-step he slowly turns his head towards the mountain looming above them and starts screaming when he sees a humanoid shape is flying towards them. In a span of a few seconds he’s thrown back as something hits him and he hears the resounding twang of rubber retracting as he’s rolling backwards. 

He slams into one of the guard rails, hard, and lets out a groan as his head slowly stops spinning in circles. 

“Oi, Luffy! You okay?!” 

“Yeah! I told you I could do it!” 

Usopp winces and realizes that the second voice is yelling right next to his ear, he blinks open his eyes and glances around to discover a boy sprawled, limbs literally stretched out long and unnatural around him as he’s laughing without a care, head dangling upside down from the railing. As far as reactions go, Usopp’s pretty certain screaming would be considered normal, so he does that. Loudly. 

“Usopp, are you okay?” Nami asks frantically as she’s checking over him. 

“He-he-he’s-all _noodly_!” 

Even Sanji looks mildly concerned by the state of the stretched out boy next to him, or probably curious judging by how he carefully toes a rubbery arm not unlike the way someone pokes something possibly dead with a stick.

“Oi Luffy, did you hit someone again? Crap, are you guys alright?!” 

There’s another teenager running towards them, black hair flopping around wildly as he jumps over people and obstacles, and skids to a stop a few feet away. “Pull yourself together Luffy.” 

“But _Ace_ my neck is tied around the post-thing," he whines with his tongue sticking out and Usopp sees him trying to _pull_ his neck back to his torso with little budges. Needless to say he shut his eyes again and groans. 

“Alright hold still, wait no...maybe this way?” As the older teen talks while he’s untangling the other Usopp hears distinct, rubbery noises and yelps of pain, and maybe having his eyes closed is worse because his imagination runs wild with terrible, terrible imagery. 

“Usopp, how many fingers am I holding up?” 

“Um, t-two Nami?” 

“Aha!” 

They all stare as the boy’s rubbery limbs retract to normal proportions and the older teen pulls him up before making him forcibly bow. 

“I apologize deeply for that mishap on the behalf of my brother!” 

“Ah, my bad for crashing into you!” 

Suddenly feeling flustered and nervous all over again, Usopp waves his hands around as he speaks, “Oh it’s ok-okay! I didn’t get hurt t-too bad.”

 “Please at least allow us to treat you three to a meal for the trouble.” 

“Can’t say no to that,” Sanji quips as he helps Usopp up to his feet and presses a hand against his ribs. Usopp flinches at the pressure. “Ow.”

 “You’re probably just a little bruised Usopp.” 

He glances over to Nami and sees her watching the rubber boy with a strange expression, pensive and silent. They follow the two boys into a place called Party’s bar and all of them squeeze into a table that’s better meant for four people instead of five. 

“I’m Ace by the way, the one that barreled into you guys is my little brother.” 

“Hi I’m Luffy! Are you guys pirates too?” 

Nami shakes her head. “We’re just sailing around. I’m Nami.” 

“Usopp.” 

“Sanji.” 

Usopp points at Luffy with a raised brown, “Wh-what did you mean are we pirates too?” 

“I’m gonna be the Pirate King one day! Hey you guys should be a part of my crew!” Luffy says, full of laughter. 

Ace pokes Luffy’s head and admonishes him, if a little fondly,“Oi Luffy, you can’t go around starting a pirate crew until you’re of age.” 

“You’re worrying about that instead of the fact he just recruited us into his crew?” Sanji says to Ace, leaning back against the chair. 

“Besides, you don’t even know us,” Nami adds.

“Does it matter? We’ll be friends going on adventures together!” 

Usopp wasn’t sure whether Luffy’s boundless energy was making him tired or excited, either way he was something else, sounding entirely serious about the matter despite his light tone. Wanting to be the Pirate King was probably one of the biggest and most improbable dreams but he was stating it as casually as one would comment on the weather. _It’s gonna be a sunny day. I’m gonna be the most wanted man in the world!_

“Well I’m gonna be the bravest warrior of the seas!” 

“Woah, that sounds way cool! You should definitely be a part of my crew.” 

And it’s like a dam was broken because the five of them stay huddled there, slowly sharing dreams and plans of the future. He wasn’t sure what exactly Luffy had that made it so easy, so simple to talk and trust little bits of themselves to each other, but it felt natural. His reactions were of genuine amazement and glee. _A map of the world! The All Blue!_

By the end of the night the pain from his ribs is replaced by a different sort of ache that comes from laughing too much, too freely, as they listen to the brothers recreate their absolutely ridiculous adventures growing up. Nami has to slap his back when he starts choking and wheezing, and he can’t remember the last time he’s laughed this much, or has felt this warm and comfortable surrounded by people.

 All five of them end up sleeping in one room in one giant pile and just as sleep dims his vision and makes his mind all fuzzy Usopp spots Nami sitting by the window, chin resting on her folded knees, looking as thoughtful as she did before.

 “Is something wrong Nami?” he whispers sleepily.

 She doesn’t reply, doesn’t look like she’s heard him actually, just sits there and traces a constellation on the glass of the window with her fingertips.

 “No, nothing is wrong. The opposite, I think,” Nami says, quiet and content.

 “Oh alright, goodnight then.”

 “Night.”

 ~*~

 When Luffy said that they will be friends it was as if he wrote down a law of nature itself. They spent several days and nights in that village, running around and exploring with the two brothers. Eventually Sanji grumbled that he should be heading back and they all depart with the promise to keep in touch. Nami doesn’t remember who sent the first letter but after that it was impossible not to keep writing to each other, to the point where she starting receiving multiple letters almost each day from the overworked News Coo seagulls for the next four years. 

The first time they celebrated Usopp’s birthday together he couldn’t stop crying as they ate Sanji’s beautiful cake. Luffy often included little treasures he’s found in his letters, seashells and petrified twigs (with Ace’s more legible handwriting in the margins to clarify some sentences). Sanji wrote her sweet little poems, romantic at first but after some pointed words from her his poetry shifted to something that praised the beauty of all things. Usopp’s letters consisted of little stories and sometimes the backs of them were covered in diagrams and ideas of things he wanted to build. 

Nami never imagined such a friendship to last when they were all islands and days of travel apart but somehow it worked out. They threw a party for Ace’s birthday and departure, full of tears and promises to meet each other out there in the world and to keep each other safe. As Luffy’s 17th birthday approached they agreed that he would sail out alone and stop by Usopp’s island first (at Kaya’s request, she spoke of a present fit for the King of Pirates), then Nami, then finally stop by the _Baratie_ before they sail out. 

So, she shouldn’t have been surprised when the idiot didn’t follow their plans, their first mistake was to expect Luffy to follow any plans at all. After a week of waiting around and increasingly worried letters from Usopp she sails out to find Luffy. Nami checks the areas near Dawn Island before venturing out further and runs into a group of hostile pirates wearing clown makeup. 

“What the hell, Luffy?!”

 He’s laughing as he usually does, carefree and full of mirth, despite falling straight down from the sky, and adjusts his hat while sitting atop the pirates he plummeted atop. 

“Hey Nami! That was a pretty neat experience I had, did you see that bird? I also found a swordsman!” 

She knocks him over the head and shakes her fist. “I was so worried and you’ve just been screwing around!” 

“Ow, ow, Nami! Sorry, sorry!” 

One thing happens after another, they royally piss of a clown pirate, and both of them end up being captured. Then somehow get rescued by none other than the Pirate Hunter Zoro, the previously mentioned swordsman (and doesn’t that elicit memories) who grouses and grumbles as he drags around Luffy who's still stuck inside the stone cage. Both of them banter like age old pals, as casually as you would even while one of them is bleeding heavily out with each step. 

“Oi Luffy, who’s she?” 

“She’s our navigator!” 

Zoro accepts the explanation without question and just continues to carry him around. As far as first impressions go, he made a rather impressive one. They defeat Buggy and move on and Nami, not for the first time, wonders at the mess she’s gotten herself into. Yet, Luffy was as sure as the sunrise, just as dependable, and at some point their dreams intertwined and became something unified. A friendship with sturdy roots cultivated by years of shared experiences. 

They find a most relieved Usopp and beat up the creepy butler pirate that moved in Kaya’s mansion a few years ago. Then they stop by the _Baratie_ and witness a duel so one-sided and horrible, that it was nothing short a miracle that Zoro even survived the gaping wound on his chest. After defeating the Krieg pirates and being kicked out by Zeff (literally in Sanji’s case, as he couldn’t bare to leave the damaged ship), they finally stop by Nami’s home island to only discover that marines imposed a martial law on the area.

Needless to say that before they even step foot in the Grand Line the Strawhat pirates accumulate a most impressive and frightening bounty. _Seriously Luffy? You didn’t need to completely wreck that marine outpost!_  

_Shishishi, my bad. I got a little excited._

Nami sets down her quill and rubs the bridge of her nose and dares to look outside her room to see Luffy and Zoro rolling wresting around on deck, breaking boxes and barrels without a care. _Idiots of a feather._ She tacks on additional fees for them in the log book and goes back to sketching out the map, smiling as the sound of laughter rings through the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you dear readers enjoyed this chapter one way or another and would love to hear your feedback


	9. Chapter 9

Zoro picks up his last rook, tapping the ridged edges against his lips as he contemplates the board, even with the generous handicap Robin set up he was still losing pieces at an embarrassingly rapid pace. He tries to guess at the myriad of ways she could trounce him and develops a few moves for him to last another turn or two. Not that it would help much in this case, but he's stubborn enough to keep trying.

“A bold strategy Mr. Swordsman.”

“We’ll see if it pays off.”

Robin captures his rook on the next turn with a knight he didn’t notice and cleanly checkmates his king with a bishop afterwards. She sits back, tossing his king midair with a modest smile as hands sprout up in the table between them to clean the board, “You’re improved from the last game, perhaps we can begin playing with a full set?”

“You’re just being cruel now,” he grumbles halfheartedly.

“Maybe next time then. I believe we are rather out of time now. Our contact has yet to show and there are marines nearing our location," Robin says as she calmly reaches forward for her cup of tea.

Zoro slouches even further in his chair and glances around the outdoor cafe, deserted on a clear summer day since someone recognized them from the wanted posters some time ago. At least there was a self serve station with snacks.

“They've been slow at getting here, I'm almost disappointed.”

“You’re always rather unimpressed with the marines Mr. Swordsman. Shall we go then?”

He yawns with a slight nod and pushes himself up to his feet, kicking the chair back under the table as Robin gets up as well. In the three years they’ve been sailing together she has yet to use his name, calling him by that title instead. Zoro doesn't mind too much, it was another little reminder of his older Robin when she used to playfully call him that, finding his grumbling humorous.

This Robin also amused herself greatly when their new wanted posters came in and she called him by _that_ rather unfortunate title for months.

_Ah, One Eyed Demon could you pass the sugar? The One Eyed Demon what are you opinions on the weather?_

He still wants to find whichever poor soul is responsible for the posters because he has specific words to hash out with them. At least the picture wasn't half bad, his profile covered in blood and with a burning building right behind him, it definitely sent a message of the right kind.

Zoro walks after her, left arm folded into his robes, and watches her tie her hair up with fluid and graceful movements of her hands. She turns her head slightly and tilts it to the side thoughtfully. “There’s an admiral on the island with them.” Robin slowly blinks twice, an action he’s learned that she does whenever she’s looking through the extra eyes she’s created. “As well as two vice admirals.”

His brow raises at that, the marines were finally getting serious about them to send out an admiral to an little island in the ass end of nowhere of the Grand Line. To be fair, they have been chasing them relentlessly as he and Robin went around plundering marine bases for incriminating documents and spread them around news outlets. It started off with him simply wanting to help out Robin seek out lost history, to keep her safe, but they soon discovered how much information the World Government covered up. Knowledge was power and both of them were eager knock the Gorosei down a peg or two.

“Which admiral did they send?” he asks while cleaning out his ear with a finger and lets out another jaw cracking yawn.

“Akainu.”

“Hmph, they finally decided let him off his leash after the shit he wrecked the last time.”

“We should be cautious Mr. Swordsman. He is ruthless, even more so as a man with something to prove.” She levels with a concerned look, mouth a thin line. “There are more battleships approaching, it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to scorch the earth and draw us out.”

“They haven’t even evacuated the civilians here,” Robin adds a moment later as she looks at one of the buildings on the street, frightened faces ducking behind their windows immediately.

He stares across the main street of the town, having a general sense of how many marines are surrounding them and sighs in frustration. A smaller number was approaching from the inhabited areas and the larger force coming in to route them from the other side. If they run they will run into the main opposition, if they decide to fight here then there will be a lot of damage, not to mention extremely risky. The sheer number of marines approaching makes him consider the reason they came here, the realization that they’ve been set up for a trap making him snarl.

Robin appears like she came to the same conclusion. “The informant we were supposed to meet was a decoy.”

“Knew that top hat wearing overstuffed chicken was a damn liar. Robin-”

“We are not splitting up,” she cuts him off instantly, eyes narrow and stubborn.

Zoro frowns back at her. “I can draw their attention with one of your copies and you can slip off the island, you’re their priority, Robin,” he says her name like a plea, unwilling to even consider the concept of her capture.

“Mr. Swordsman, I do not wish to see anyone else I care about sacrifice themselves foolishly for my sake.”

And doesn't _that_ press an old -never forgotten- memory at the forefront of his mind. Of a man with a straw hat throwing himself in front of a void and looking back at him with eyes full of love, even as blood seeps from his mouth, even as he draws his last breath. It's been over four years, hasn't it? His chest feels tight all of a sudden. (Time slips through his fingers like precious water and he is the thirst stricken man who cannot save even a mere drop.)

He pushes the thoughts away for the time being and meets her concerned stare. “Robin, our options are getting limited.”

“There are tunnels beneath the isle that we can use to funnel them in, make it easier to pick them off.”

“And if they just decide to bomb it?”

“Those tunnels are deep, I'm certain we can make it out before it collapses and crushes us to death.”

He snorts at the timing of her humor. “I suppose you know where all the exits are.”

Robin smiles slightly as an answer and changes the direction they were walking, away from the town and towards a overgrown section of land where remnants of buildings lay.  It only takes a cursory sweep of the area before she finds whatever she’s looking for, an entrance with a weathered and heavy iron door. As he’s unsheathing one of his swords Robin merely pushes at it, and he rests his hand on the hilts of his swords with a proud smile, nodding at her strength as the hinges scream like banshees but she opens it just enough for them to slip inside.

The air was stale, full of dust and rust and small critters skitter away into darkened corners as the two of them enter. Farther in the tunnel he sees nothing but stifling darkness, narrow and winding, but he straightens his shoulders and takes in a deep breath and goes forward, this darkness is natural, he tells himself. Robin gently touches his elbow for a brief moment and he's not quite surprised but all together so very grateful for that small action. _He's not back there._

He taps Shuusui’s hilt against the wall and listens intently to how the sound travels with his eye closed, there were at least two or three different passageways that split off about half a mile away. In the meanwhile Robin had lit up a small torch, holding it up to the walls and inspecting the painted on graffiti.

“These are directional way symbols for smugglers.”

“It looks like it's been awhile since these tunnels have been used. No footprints in the dust,” he states.

“I wonder what they transported on such a small island, pity we can't stay longer,” Robin says with one last look at the walls.

They walk further in, shadows growing and morphing from the faint torch light. He feels the earth and stone shift around them, miniscule and ages long, and senses marines searching for them above. Zoro, curious despite the situation, spots a small door on the side of the hallway and opens it with a few good pushes, airflow blowing dust everywhere. He huffs, partly to clear out the dust flying around his face, and looks inside.

It appeared to be a mailing room, ancient stamps and rotting boxes with papers strewn around, and there is a skeleton hunched over a table with a small knife embedded in the skull. Zoro goes over and carefully runs his fingers across the bone hilt, engraved with intricate flower patterns, it looked old with dust and grime covering it but he could see the craftsmanship that went into its creation.

He pulls it out and checks the edge, a little dull from age but recoverable. The skull shatters, pieces scattering across the room but neither of then pay it no mind. Robin leafs through the yellowed documents, looking dissatisfied with the lack of anything useful. Zoro turns and holds out the knife’s handle towards her, “Here, a souvenir.”

Robin delicately takes it from him and inspects it between her hands, fingers running over the details on the handle with care. There’s a smile in her face as she wraps it and places it in her pack. “It’s beautiful, thank you Mr. Swordsman.”

“C’mon, boots are starting to stomp above us,” he says. There is a quiet warmth blooming in his chest, a feeling not unlike victory after a long fight, from her words.

Robin slips past him and heads forward, confident strides that say she knows the direction they're supposed to go. “There is a large room ahead of us, we can draw them in there and lay traps. Once enough are in we can collapse the passageway and continue on.”

He makes an agreeing sound in his throat and flinches violently and swears when he runs into a fucking dust covered spider web. As he’s coughing and wiping the disgusting mess off his face Robin stares at the remnants of the webs hanging off the ceiling and smiles, razor sharp with glinting eyes.

“I have an idea.”

~*~

There is a very minuscule part of him that feels pity for the marines as their screams echo through the underground passageways. Robin is very frightening when she sets a goal for herself.

“Three more standing shoulder to shoulder two feet the right, one more is crouching behind them five feet away.”

The way her fruit powers interact with observation haki is an interesting sensation, there is a moment when her limbs sprout up that he can feel the intent coming from them but then it’s gone just as quickly, he isn’t sure whether it’s due to her powers or how she thinks her way in a fight, critical and analyzing and altogether formidable, that makes it near impossible to predict how her extra limbs would move. She hasn’t developed her haki - _yet,_ so he’s standing next to her, marking frightened targets to take down in the complete darkness.

She’s breathing heavily after dispatching the last of them and slowly blinks. “They’re sending all of them in with torches now. A shame we cannot continue with this game but at least they will be slowed down by the bodies of their comrades," Robin says as she’s stretching her arms.

“Whenever you’re ready to go then.”

The muscles in her right arm are spasming slightly from overexertion but he doesn’t point it out, just continues to keep an eye on her as they resume their descent into the tunnels.

“There’s another chamber further in and past that are two sets of exits end on different points of the island. The question is which one leads to a safer area.”

“We’ll just pick one when we get there,” he says with a shrug.

“Mr. Swordsman.” Her tone is flat and he thinks he can pick out the hints of exasperation.

“What?”

As he grins at her the entire earth abruptly shakes violently and he immediately grabs Robin and shields her with his body. Loose debris crash around them and the walls of the chamber groan and rumble ominously as the quake finally eases some moments later.

“You okay Robin?”

“Yes, thank you. It appears Akainu has grown impatient,” she says while dispelling the arms covering his back.

Without the need to speak they pick up their pace and run the rest of the way, just as they reach the fork of the two tunnels the earth begins shaking again and there is an instant, instinctual feeling that leaves an impression of the ceiling collapsing right above them, right above Robin. He reacts without thought and flings her into one of the tunnels just as parts of the ceiling crack and crash down. As the dust clears Zoro claws at the collapse, “Robin are you okay?!”

Because he can still feels her beyond it, but fears, oh how he fears, her current state. When he hears the faintest cough the anxious, ugly sensation eases in his chest and he breathes out in relief.

“Mr. Swordsman, I’m fine. Are you alright?”

Zoro tastes blood trickling into his mouth, a familiar occurrence, and despite annoying ache on one side of his body he can still move, “Just scratches. Listen Robin, I can’t cut through this collapse without risking the tunnel you’re in so you gotta keep going.”

“You can’t just decide that on your own, I can dig you out.” Her voice is muffled but it’s as unyielding as the stone around them.

“If we had hours. Robin-”

There is that moment again, the sensation of her extra limbs sprouting all around her, before he hears a distinct sound of rocks being shifted. “I refuse to leave you behind like this!”

“ _Please_ , Robin. Get to safety, I can use the other exit.”

For a few seconds there is silence, his own breathing all too loud in his ears until she speaks, “I’ve never heard you say that word before.”

“Do you remember that desert island I told you about?”

“Yes.”

“I promise to see you there again Robin.”

Something slams against the rubble (a blood stained hand shaking with frustration, desperation) and another moment of quiet follows.

“You better keep your word Mr. Swordsman.”

“I always do,” he says, both as an answer and a promise.

Zoro stays braced against the collapse for another minute and makes absolutely sure she is moving without trouble before he starts his own escape. He draws out one of his swords and inhales a lungful of stale air before slicing the rubble on the other exit, the walls rumble and shake but he doesn't pause to consider the risk before he’s sprinting in. His left knee isn't bending properly but he forces it to move despite the jarring sensation, he's continued on in worse conditions.

Another volley of canons hit the area but it's concentrated on the sections behind him, it's frustrating to see that this Akainu is just as relentless, just as ruthless as his other version, all too willing to sacrifice soldiers in the name of victory and his absolute justice. Zoro can respect his drive but nothing else of the man.

The faintest whisper of air whistling through an opening ahead makes him feel a little less closed in after running for what felt like hours in the dark, the exit was near at least. He doesn’t fear his own death, never will, but doesn’t fancy being buried alive, suffocating on dust in the deep dark with only shadows as company. He picks up his pace when he sees faint light filtering in through the cracks of the door and sunders it apart, the sun overly blinding bright even behind dark clouds gathering overhead and for a good long moment he stands there, rooted to ground and greedily breathes in the cold ocean air.

Zoro looks around the area through the haze of his adjusting vision, a beach full of rocky outcroppings with the sea air lashing against his body. There is a part of him that wants to find Robin immediately but it was far safer for her to escape on her own, she was brilliant and resourceful, and she would make it until the Strawhats reach Alabasta in another handful of years. She has before, after all.

He walks down the faded path, runs his hand across rough surface of the columns of basalt that were once, long ago, beneath the ocean. Zoro stops at the ever-changing border between sand and sea and gazes out at the dark storm gathering at the horizon, thundering and otherworldly. With a deep breath that is almost painful he turns back and looks at the island, he should get the marines attention over here, away from Robin. He draws out Wado and practices a set of flowing motions, turning the blade from a pristine white to the dark vitreous sheen of haki, and hears it ring out clear and true.

There was nothing he couldn’t cut, his limit was infinity -a trichiliocosm of a million worlds and a billion more possibilities. He strides, then runs, then leaps and finally he breathes in, syncing with the rhythm of his heart and slashes as he breathes out. The cliff that moments ago was a looming formation of ancient rock and layers of lava shifts and breaks, the entire weight of sliding to the side from the clean cut that runs through its entirety. He grins and jumps atop the now smooth plateau, watches the top crash down the slope towards the forested area in the middle of the island and sits down, legs folded beneath him, and waits.

It doesn’t take long for his actions to be retaliated towards as burning bright magma swallows the remnants of the peak with angry hisses, melting it all into a formless mass before it crawls up and stops just at the edge of the plateau.

“I didn’t take you as a man who flaunted his strength pointlessly, One Eyed Demon,” Akainu says with distaste as he lands, trails of magma sizzling behind him and leaving spots of steam curling through the air.

“Got your attention didn’t it?” he taunts back.

“In vain. I know you wanted to draw our attention to you to make sure Nico Robin escapes the island but I will tell you now that your actions are futile.”

Zoro stands up and shrugs with one shoulder. “As long as she doesn’t have to deal with you then it’s fine.”

“You overestimate yourself.” There’s magma dripping down both of Akainu’s arms as he speaks with a challenging tone.

“You can find out if I really am.”

He bites down on Wado’s hilt and shifts his weight down, crouching at the ready. Akainu was as much as a hazard as Blackbeard is - _will be_ , and there’s a part of him that craves to spill his blood. Zoro knows enough of the pain he caused, the life he took from long years and soft words uttered in the night (his fingers brush against the edges of a large scar and his captain whispers that sometimes he can still feel the scalding heat close to his heart despite the deadened nerves). The admiral was dangerous, probably more so now in his youth, with techniques that aren’t as refined as before but still overpowering and overwhelming.

They both move at the same time, swords meeting hardened magma and this close to him he feels the extreme levels of heat coming out of Akainu, their raw strength almost equal as they trade blow after blow. He know he’s at a disadvantage at such close quarters but Zoro takes it as a challenge and jumps above him to avoid the spray of magma and thrusts down with Shuusui. Akainu blocks it with his arm but Zoro twists his blade and forces the cut deeper until he slices through the arm completely. His opponent was experienced enough, for him to be anything else would be an insult, to react accordingly and prevent his limb from being dismembered by shifting the ‘true’ one away. Logia users were both irritating and thrilling to fight against.

Zoro lands a few feet away and spins his body to send out a dragon twister that clears away the flying projectiles of magma. He lunges, both blades angled horizontally and aims to cut at the neck and stomach. Just as he cuts through and feels Akainu flinch a column of magma bursts out from beneath him, melting his robes away and burning into a portion of his torso. Zoro rolls away to smother it and glares at Akainu’s slowly reforming body, his left side was stinging uncomfortably, the smell of burnt flesh making him curl his nose. He doesn't look down at the damage, just tightens his grip on his blade and charges out again.

Their fight causes the plateau to be cut into pieces and melted down, the arena expanding down and down until they're on the beach. At some point the storm hit then, bringing down a thick sheet of rain that made Akainu’s body smoke and sizzle. Zoro swallows blood and analyzes his opponent, whose movements were getting slower from the amount of injuries he’s been inflicted with, as he throws out a fist of magma that sails through the air. He takes the opportunity and dives forward, feels the heat lick his back, drives his blades into Akainu’s torso and and delivers a lacerating cut with diagonal zig-zagging motions, slashing through internal organs.

He finally sees blood trickle out of Akainu’s mouth and grins viciously as he disengages, but Akainu only staggers before standing straight and slams his hands together. The earth rumbles and Zoro feels his intent, to create an eruption that will consume the entire half of the island. As he charges out to finish him off the ground splits open at multiple points and molten fire shoots out, effectively blocking his path and he's forced to take steps back and analyze his options.

Three things happen concurrently, lightning strikes, cannons fly through the air, and the earth shakes with magma pooling out of the growing fissures. Akainu shifts his focus away from the fight at the sound of cannons and looks confounded, he didn't relay the order then. As more of them hit Zoro suddenly feels someone grab his shoulder and pull him behind cover, he didn't sense anyone else nearby at all (or was he so focused on Akainu that he didn't notice?), and just as he whirls around to strike he stops.

There’s a boy with a scar over his left eye and wearing a top hat, both hands held up in a placating manner.

“Sir, I request that you come with me. We are allies here to help you.”

“Later, I got a fight to finish," Zoro states as he turns back.

“Sir that would be inadvisable, every marine on the island is heading here and there is no possible way for you to continue without extreme risk.”

He doesn't reply, only readies his blades and watches Akainu’s molten figure glare out at the sea to see who was attacking him.

“My deepest apologies sir.”

Zoro doesn't feel the intent to harm but he definitely feels the tight pressure squeeze his neck just as he takes a step forward. His vision gets hazy and his body is suddenly sluggish and he fights it as much as he fights anything else but it’s progressively getting harder and harder to focus.

“You’re a fucking brat, Sabo.” He manages to snarl out before collapsing, feeling slightly better about the indignancy of the whole thing at Sabo’s shocked expression.

The rain is incessant and heavy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and leaving such wonderful feedback! I would roll around in them if I could. 
> 
> (also that new OP chapter tho)


	10. Chapter 10

There is a point between wakefulness and dreaming where the physical form is weightless and floats aimlessly in the ether of the subconscious. There is a moment when memories are in the present, palpable and real, and his thoughts are meandering through them somewhere between the now and what was before. The first time he opens his eye -or maybe he doesn’t- there is a snake slithering across his body, skin shimmering with the absent colors of the void. It’s massive body is moving around, individual scales dragging across his skin, carving him open with paper thin cuts, and he hears a loud hissing noise by the left side of his face but he _can't_ turn his head to look despite his attempts.

_“Give him another dose of anesthetic, it’s wearing off already.”_

_“Again? We’ve barely begun on his leg.”_

_“Double it, we don’t want him to wake up during this.”_

He might’ve blinked, he might’ve been sleeping still. There is a presence carding his hair back with rough fingers and there is a scent he recognizes that illicit hazy memories that make him yearn for the sun, for the warmth of _belonging_ somewhere.

  
The next time he wakes he doesn’t open his eye, just lays there and breathes. He listens to the moaning creak of wooden planks, the sound of waves crashing against the hull of the ship, and feels the sea rock them back and forth as the rain batters the surface. The skin around the right side of his torso feels too tight and he slowly sits up with his eye shut, there are many others in the ship but he doesn’t bother to learn beyond that. Zoro finally cracks his eye open, rubs away the gunk and inspects the room. He’s in what he assumes is the infirmary, bed surrounded by white curtains and the sharp sting of antiseptic in his nose. Something tugs on his arm and he glances over, the motion causing the needle to shift inside the large vein of his inner elbow (a sensation that is neither painful or comfortable), the bag of solution hooked up above him is barely half empty, someone had checked up on him recently.

With careful increments he lifts his arm up and tugs off the tape with his teeth before beginning the task of gently pulling out the tubing, clamped between his canines, until the needle slides out. He reaches over and shuts off the drip with the roller clamp, the countless lectures about wasting medical supplies by Chopper did rub off on him at some point, and leans forward to inspects his left leg, holding back a wince when his side protests at his activities.

His fingers skim over the raised flesh, throbbing cuts sewn shut with stitches, and he detects an unknown material inside his tibia and ankle as he presses down. It’s jarring for a moment, to wake up and only guess at what happened to his body but he doesn’t have time to worry over it. Zoro turns his attention to the bandages on his chest and rips them off, hissing as the cool air hits the skin and looks down at the scars on his torso. A reticulation of raised and angry red flesh that licks up from his right hip up to his ribs and wraps halfway around him. Zoro runs his fingertips against the edge of the scar on his chest, seething with cold fury at his condition and getting injured in a fight that he should have won. He's better than this (he'll kill Akainu next time).

There are more burn scars running across his hand and up his arm but those appear minor in comparison. His robes are folded neatly on a stool next to his bed and he throws it ovee his shoulders and lets the sleeves hang empty.

Zoro doesn’t see his swords in the room, tamps down on the flicker of worry before it morphs into some larger, and moves his legs and scoots his body to the edge of the bed even as it sends out bolts inflamed of protest. The floor is cold, his left leg threatens to collapse on him as it shoots out pin pricks of agony when he presses down. He is no stranger to pain, he and it were lifelong friends that maintained constant interaction after all, so he breathes deeply and forces himself up. He staggers and almost falls back down but he is a obstinate individual (something that Robin described him as) who pushes and pushes, ignoring any limits imposed by his mortality because that is required of him.

A pair of crutches are benignly resting in a corner and after a moment of deliberation he walks over, steps unsteady, and snatches one of them. It’s embarrassing to use such such a tool but it was pragmatic, he knows that he needs something to fight with if it came to it in his current state. He shoves the door open and picks a direction. It feels like it’s nighttime, there is no one in the hallways and when he pauses to listen he could pick out sounds of faint snoring.

The ship is a maze of twists and turns and illogical layouts and he would bet his remaining arm on Dragon purposefully designing it to be as vexing and absolutely infuriating as possible, since those are the traits Zoro clearly remembers of the man himself. As he considers his next direction there is a creak of the floorboards that makes him whirl around, crutch swinging down and slamming into a body.

There stood Sabo without his hat, both hands holding back the metal that would have hit him straight in the face, expression somewhere between bewildered panic and worry.

“Ah, sir, you shouldn’t be out and about,” he remarks calmly while heroically struggling against the crutch slowly pushing towards his face, and Zoro’s grin sharpens into something wicked. “Could you please stop trying to hit my face, sir.”

“And whose fault was it that I landed in an infirmary in the first place?” he says, bearing down just a little bit more to make the brat sweat.

“I think that fault lies on your own shoulders for fighting against an admiral with a broken leg,” Sabo snaps back (and that’s the fiery older brother he remembers) before he politely finishes the sentence with a ‘sir’.

Smartass.

Zoro pulls back and looks over the gangly brat growing into his limbs with a vest that's a size too big. As Sabo’s standing back up Zoro pokes his forehead with the end of the crutch. “I’ve got some words with you, brat. But I gotta talk to Dragon first.”

“Ah, Dragon asked for your presence when we realized you were blundering around the lower levels. I spent the last ten minutes tracking you down.”

“Eh?” Zoro growls, low and menacing with his eye narrowing into a glare.

At least the brat had the decency to look intimidated before he turned around and guided him through the halls. After almost destroying a set of stairs while climbing up them and walking through some more winding hallways they reach a heavy oak door with an ornate knocker shaped like a dragon’s head. Sabo pushes the door open before stepping aside and gesturing for him to enter. “I’ll be waiting here to guide you back to the infirmary afterwards, sir.”

“I can find my way back,” he says, gruff and annoyed.

Sabo’s shoots him a very doubtful and unimpressed look and just _barely_ manages to duck away from the crutch slamming into the wall behind him. Zoro hears the sound of a quill tearing through paper and subsequently scratching against a polished table and lets out a snort, loud and satisfied, before stepping inside. The entire room feels more like a library with bookcases on each wall filled to the brim with scrolls and books. Underneath the porthole sat Dragon, staring down at the broken quill as the paper underneath his hand lay ruined with a large ink stained tear running through it.

Zoro ambles towards the chair across him and sits down heavily, stretching his legs outwards while ignoring the faint reminders from his body that he’s in pain, and waits.

“I was told by my doctors that you won’t be conscious for another two days at the least but it seems that you have a habit of... _exceeding_ expectations.” Dragon says, the emphasis on the word sounding closer to an insult rather than a compliment, as he neatly folds away the paper and pulls out a fresh one.

“My swords, then we talk,” Zoro says bluntly.

Dragon reaches down below his desk and holds out Wado and Shuusui. Zoro places them on his lap, flicks open the hilts to check the blades and finds them undamaged and whole, and finally the tight muscles of his body finally begin to relax.

“To the point then. I am Dragon, leader of the Revolutionary Army and I wish to thank your and Nico Robin’s recent onsets against the World Government. The information you revealed has made many people question the leadership they serve under and have motivated them to look beneath the lies spread to keep them in check,” Dragon speaks as he writes, pronouncing each word clearly and with a confidence that affirms his station. He was similar to Luffy in that way, who is so full of self-assured confidence that inspired unwavering devotion from his friends. “Our influence has grown considerably, thanks to your efforts.”

Zoro remains silent, raising a brow slightly to signal for him to continue.

“Consider this an offer to join the Revolutionary Army in an official capacity. I’m utterly certain that a man of your proficiency can accomplish feats that requires the strength of a thousand men,” he says as he looks up, gesturing with a hand to emphasize his point. “You held your own against an admiral, afterall, and your bounty speaks for itself.”

With a slight huff Zoro tilts his head back and weighs his options. In the future Dragon had been an ally that was fueled by his own goals, a path that lead to him eventually burning down the Holy Land as a demonstration to the world. Some even said that was one of the catalysts that turned the Marines into the overzealous force that scorched down many nations. Zoro didn’t care either way about his actions but it had hurt Luffy when Dragon was captured and executed, despite their distant relation.

“How’d you know we were on that island?”

“If you think I would let the two of the most invaluable individuals wander around without constant surveillance then I would be a poor example of a leader.”

“I’m flattered,” Zoro says flatly. “I’m surprised you didn’t stuff Robin into a sack and bring her on your ship.”

Dragon sighs and Zoro instantly figures out that he actually tried that. A part of him wants to laugh at the absurdity of him even attempting to bring in Robin against her will.

“Nico Robin didn’t take to the offer as well as I hoped,” he confesses, hands interlocking on the table. “I would like to add that you may recover freely here with whichever choice you make.”

Zoro rubs the bridge of his nose, he has doubt, much of it, but there are somethings that he knows are true. It’s odd, almost disconcerting at times when he thinks too much into know what he knows and what he doesn’t. With the available resources from the Revolutionaries he _could_ track down those select individuals on his list with relative ease.

“I won’t join but I’ll tag along for a while, see how it goes,” he says after a few minutes.

“I must accept then, I had hoped you would join in full but it it seems that you are a man with other goals. Before we finish this conversation, may I have your name?”

“What, couldn’t dig it up with your spies?” Zoro replies mockingly.

“Exactly that. There are no records of you, no one knows of anything of you beside your title on the wanted posters. You are an absolute enigma, sprung out of thin air,”

“It’s Ronin and gotta say, I’m a little disappointed,” he remarks and stands up unceremoniously.

“You satisfied one curiosity of mine, Ronin,” Dragon says cryptically before going back to writing. “We can discuss more matters at a later time then, I bid you a fitful rest.”

Shrugging Zoro exits the room and when the door clicks shut he glances over, noticing Sabo leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he dozed off with drool dripping down his chin.

“Hey brat.”

Sabo snaps to attention with a jolt, hands reflexively in front of him and ready for a fight. It takes him only a moment to realize the situation, straighten up, and wipe his face. “Sir?”

“Tell me you know a stash of booze hiding somewhere on this ship,” Zoro says, running his hand through his hair because he’s got a headache coming  and drinking has always been the medication of his choice despite Chopper’s best attempts to make him stop. One time he even dumped out every drop of alcohol into the sea only to give up a few weeks later when Zoro kept pulling out flasks from thin air (he just hid them in his weights).

“I’m not sure if that’s wise with your condition.”

“I’ll go knock down doors til I find one then.” He says over his shoulder as he’s walking away.

“Please _don’t_ do that,” Sabo whines out with a defeated sigh and slumps. “This way please.”

They go down into the lower levels of the ship until they reach an almost cozy corner hidden behind boxes of supplies. There’s some hammocks, metal buckets arranged like seats around an upturned crate with a stack of cards on top of it, and most importantly a crate of ale under the floorboards.

Zoro quickly swipes up a bottle and all but throws himself onto the hammock as he bites off the cork. After downing half of the bottle in one go he looks over to Sabo, who stands there awkwardly as he watches him with wide eyes.

“Sit,” Zoro directs him at a spot next to him. “You drink?”

“No, I don’t like the taste,” Sabo replies as he sits down on the bucket, knees bent, and keeps shooting curious glances up at him.

Zoro raises his brow.

“How did you know my name?” Sabo finally blurts out, he’s probably been thinking over it the entire time.

“Your brothers told me about you, Sabo. Ace and Luffy, you three were a menace,” Zoro says, finishing the bottle with another giant gulp, and has a moment to feel a little guilty at the brat’s surprised expression.

Sabo opens his mouth a few time and rubs the back of his neck. “I have brothers? I don’t recall them,” he trails off, tone unsure and confused. But Zoro sees his forehead furrow, eyes narrow as if he’s trying to remember details that are faded out.

“Ace’s got a fiery temper and far too many freckles because of how much he ends up sleeping out in the sun. Luffy...well he cries as much as he laughs but he’s just as fierce and loyal as his brothers. You know he wants to be the Pirate King one day.”

He swings the bottle by the neck between his index and middle finger, keeping his eye on Sabo’s slack face, and finds himself reminiscing even more. Zoro realizes he misses those two kids and the amount of trouble they got into on a daily basis, there was just something about their brazen joy about life that made him feel stable. “They’re mad that you already beat them at sailing the seas, you know.”

Sabo rubs away at his eyes, fingers lingering on the scar over the left one, and inhales sharply as tears begin forming.

“We made a promise, didn’t we? It was important,” he murmurs, staring at the grains on the floor as he hid the bottom of his face in trembling hands and exhales slowly, terrible and loud in the silence between them. “I don’t...I don’t think I remember but-”

Zoro can only guess at how Sabo remembered them the first time around and knows that it was connected with the aftermath of Marineford, somewhere in the blank years when the Strawhats were separated. There were the rare nights when Luffy woke up with arms outstretched, as if he was trying to grab onto someone, and he never needed to say anything, never had to ask because Zoro instinctively knew and offered comfort with his silence, letting his captain curl up against him as unspoken vows filled the space between their bodies. In the morning it was just a faint memory, burned away by the brightness and promise of a new day.

The gasp that comes out of Sabo is a broken sound, full of realization, hand pressing against his mouth as he breathes rapidly.

“They’re okay? Alive?” Sabo questions as his body shudders and shakes. There are tears and mucus streaming down his face as he bows into himself, burdened by his memories of a gone by childhood.

Zoro slips down onto the floor and pulls an unresistant Sabo to his side, wraps an arm around a trembling shoulder and lets him hide away from the world for at least a few moments. Sabo’s still a kid, even if he's part of a revolution and practically an adult, but he's still just another kid with dreams and hopes and good days and bad days. In the quiet of the storage room the storm echoes and rumbles distantly and Sabo cries into his robes but he doesn't care. Zoro reaches down for another bottle and answers the soft, garbled questions Sabo has of his brothers.

“They miss you,” he says after a while, combing back golden hair.

He allows his own thoughts to drift back to his family, lingers at moments that seem so long ago and tries, _tries_ to remember the details and the words but he only hears the vestiges of laughter and the indescribable feeling of warmth and security that leave an impression of colors in their stead.

Zoro pretends the deep ache in his chest is from his injuries.

~*~

A few days pass and the doctors already give up trying to reign him in when they discovered he already started training despite his still healing body. Zoro just shrugs away their concerns and continues his push ups, one of the doctors start pulling out her hair as the other three pull her away and mutter between themselves. The gym on the ship is large but he’s the only one using it at the moment, curious onlookers poke their heads in from time to time but he suspects there is a reason no one approaches.

When the click of boots sound across the floor he glances up and sees Sabo approaching with a large yellow fishman right behind him who pauses when he spots Zoro and smiles, the gills around his face fluttering with the gesture. A girl peeks her head out from behind his legs curiously.

“Hah! It’s true then, the One Eyed Demon is part of our organization now! I thought Sabo here was pulling my on my gills when he told us the news,” the fishman says and bends back slightly to poke the girl forward. “C’mon out Koala! He’s not scary at all, he doesn’t even have sharp teeth.”

“I wasn’t scared! I’ve seen people who are _way_ bigger than him!” Koala exclaims as she jumps out, arms raised up to accompany her point.

Zoro tries to take offense to that but just snorts as he stretches up and catches the towel Sabo tosses at him. “Ronin, I wanted you to meet these two. Hack who’s our fishman karate instructor-” he then points at Koala, “and she’s Koala, one of his students. They just came back from a resupply run.”

“Hey.”

“Hey Ronin! I heard your left eye can shoot out lasers, is that true?” Koala asks as she scampers over and tugs on his hand, unafraid and eager.

“No,” Zoro states but doesn’t pull his hand away as she inspects the layers of calluses and old scars.

“Ha, I also heard he eats up naughty children as dinner,” Hack says, rumbling with mirth and places a hand on Koala’s head. “I’m afraid you’ll be dealing with most of our overly imaginative younger members for sometime, Ronin.”

“But it’s true, he tried to eat me!” Sabo keens dramatically.

“Oi,” Zoro mutters, ever since he regained his memories the brat was absolutely fearless with him.

“I’m not falling for your jokes again Sabo. Iva still won’t look me in the eye because I tried to pull off their hair.”

Those cheeky brats were ignoring him, Koala was even waving around _his_ damn arm in front of Sabo’s face disapprovingly instead of using her own, perfectly fine, hands.

“Well, it could’ve been a wig,” Sabo replies innocently before he runs past her, sticky fingers snatching off her cap with a laugh. “But I just got yours!”

“That’s my hat! Get back here you idiot!” Koala yells at his retreating form and sprints after him.

“No running in the halls you two! Ah, to be foolish and young,” Hack says with his arms crossed, looking out at the door with warmth and pride, and turns to look at Zoro with a friendly grin. “A few of us gather for drinks down by the mess halls around this time, care to join?”

“I won’t say no to booze,” he answers with a grin of his own, drinking with fishmen meant that they could at least hold their weight against him. Jinbei liked to unwind with him from time to time, sake shared between them as he recounted stories about his travels. Sometimes it was just the two of them, sometimes the entire crew joined in and turned into a party. It had never been a lonely affair. 

Hack rumbles approvingly and begins telling him anecdotes about the rest of the members as he guides them to their destination. In a roundabout manner it felt nice to be in a ship filled by so many, maybe too many, but he doesn't think he'll mind it much. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -lies down-  
> In the beginning when I was sketching out this fic I thought it could be wrapped up in less than 10 chapters and well here we are. Maybe at little past the half-way point now. 
> 
> I can't thank each and one of you readers enough! It makes me beyond happy to hear you guys even liking this fic :D
> 
> Cheers!


	11. Chapter 11

It's been a little over three years and Sabo, even if he's the chief of arms, is still an absolute brat because he's verbally destroying a noble over an argument over tax rates or some other bullshit. Koala is furiously miming at him to go strangle Sabo from her hiding spot and Ronin has half a mind to just go drink himself unconscious at the open bar.

So that's what he does.

Just as he's sits down at the counter people start screaming and yelling and Ronin just rubs his forehead, orders himself a bottle just for the sake of it before glancing over with a deep frown. Sabo’s knocked out the noble on his ass, looking smug and all too vindicated. He bows mockingly and spins around on his heel and casually walks away, whistling jauntily and twirling his cane. The bartender, bless her heart, is a steel faced veteran of social outrages and merely hands Ronin a bottle of wine from the rack before going back to cleaning the glassware. “You got your hands full with that one, eh?”

“I don’t know that idiot,” he mutters while looking at the bottle in his hand like it held the answers of life.

Again, just as he’s about to actually drink Sabo bounds over and slaps him on the shoulder, grin wide and conniving. “Time to go!” he shouts gleefully and yanks Ronin away from the bar and out the nearest exit as harried security guards chase after them.

He’s used to being whisked away into random places by his hyperactive captain, so he just runs with Sabo, who wisely let go of his arm, cracks opens the wine and guzzles it down. “You owe me a drink.”

“But you just drank that one,” Sabo replies and points at the empty bottle.

Ronin tosses the bottle behind them, tripping up one of the guards, and bares his teeth. “And?”

Sabo jumps ahead and slams two guards away before smashing open the doors into little pieces. “Fine, but you gotta keep Koala from killing me,” he practically pleads the last part and stick out his lower lip, at least he was aware of his impending doom for botching up his assignment.

“You dug your own grave,” Ronin says without an ounce pity.

They reach the outer walls of the estate and Ronin skids to a stop and crouches down, arm braced outward, and tosses Sabo into the air as he jumps on. The kid climbs up the high, reinforced walls with relative ease and cheerfully waves down from the top. “Don’t get lost on your way to the rendezvous, old man!”

He’d severely underestimated how determined Sabo was to keep calling him that name despite the constant bodily threats. It’s like the years with Robin all over but so much worse. “Worry about your damn self you brat!”

Ronin turns, the army of guards were closing on him and he cracks his neck, he hasn’t really had a chance to loosen up since hunting down Laffitte and clipping his wings some months back. He draws out Shuusui and taps it against the ground, waiting, watching. An explosion collapses one far section of the wall, shaking the earth with the force of it, and like a game of dominoes more and more explosions quake through the entire island as the defenses become breached.

He stops tapping and grins.

~*~

“Big bro! Big bro Franky!”

“Oh, what’s gotten you so worked up, Zambai-bro?”

Zambai catches his breath with hands on his knees and deep gulps of air. “You won’t believe what’s going on San Faldo big bro! There’s an all out war going on that island.”

“Woah, woah slow down there little bro. A war between who?” Franky asks, leaning forward and raises his sunglasses.

“Word around town is the Revolutionary Army is there and now they got marines deploying by the hundreds!”

Big battles meant sunken ships, which meant more salvage for them to scrap but Zambai looked shaken, which wasn’t normal for him. The Revolutionaries were sure getting ballsy lately, attacking an island that’s so close to Enies Lobby was practically a death wish. However, he can guess that some hot shot players were involved, that certainly could have made them overconfident. But what did they want from a place like San Faldo? It’s just a little island with not much besides carnivals and workshops that supplied the festivals.

Franky sits back and taps his fingers on the armrest, behind him Mozu and Kiwi rub their chins in unison as all of them think over the situation.

“What say you guys we go check it out and see what all the fuss is about.”

“It would be fun, big bro. But are you sure? There’s gonna be all sorts of commotion with the marines,” Kiwi says, arms crossed at angle in front of her with Mozu mirroring the pose on the other side.

“Hey we’re the Franky Family babe, we just gotta lay low until they beat each other down then we go get _super_ loaded.”

Franky springs up from his chair and raises his arms up, rallying his family together with a warcry that was returned with boisterous cheers, and he just might start sobbing from how super his little brothers were. “Get the king bulls ready! We’re going to a _super_ festival my little bros!”

While Sodom and Gomorrah were top examples of their breed they were no Sea Train, it still took them a few hours to get to San Faldo and dusk was approaching fast.

“What the hell happened here?”

Everyone was trying to pile up on eachother for the best view up front. Franky grabs onto Sodom’s reins and slides down from the harness and stands perpendicular on the bull’s side, peering out through the smoke at the silhouette of destroyed dreadnaughts floating across the sea like discarded trash. “Ooh, looks like we missed the main event.”

Cannon fire resounds through the air like thunder and all of them look towards the island with smoke and fire coming from multiple areas.

“Oi big-bro! Can you see anything on the island?”

“Do I look like I got binoculars Zambai-bro?”

Mozu and Kiwi lean over and point at their eyes with their arms bent at odd angles. “We thought you did that upgrade!”

“Not yet,” Franky answers and turns to look back at the horizon ahead of them. A small part of him, not yet powered by cola or encompassed by metal, feels uneasy. Another explosion erupts on the island and he’s extremely curious to find out what exactly was hidden on San Faldo, there would be no other explanation for the Revolutionaries to have attacked an island famed for its carnivals, off all things.

“Alright slow down boys! Looks like the battle has shifted onto the island and we only got a small window of time to salvage the _super_ good stuff before the sea eats everything up!” Franky yells out and climbs back on. Zambai was already coordinating teams for quadrants and everyone began deploying on the little boats.

Franky reaches down and pulls out one of his creations, an engine powered surfboard complete with flaming shark decals, and tosses it down.

“Are you heading to the isle big-bro?”

“Oh yeah, solving a mystery is one of the qualities of a man! Mozu, Kiwi keep your ears peeled, if you hear anything ‘bout more marines coming get everyone out of here quick and slick.”

“What about you big-bro? We won’t just leave you.”

“Don’t worry lil-sisters, I’ve been strong this entire week!” Franky grins at them before he leaps off, landing on the surfboard with graceful precision and kicks on the engine. There’s more cheers from his little siblings and he shreds through the waters, salty wind blowing through his hair. “Get the job done Franky Family!”

He doesn’t want them involved in any of the mess happening on the island, thoughts full of illegal weapon plans and a number of other things that could elicit such a reaction from the marines. He needs to find out and make sure nothing potentially world ending goes into the wrong hands and then get out. Easy as cake.

The family went to San Faldo once, when he only had a handful of members, but whatever memories he remembers of the place is immediately overwritten by the sight of it in absolute smoking ruins. Zambai wasn’t exaggerating when he said a war was going on here. It sounded like the majority of the fighting was concentrated near the northern part of the isle so he shifts his course and circles around. There’s at least three dozen ships of all sizes and types docked at the large stretch of the eastern beach.

That uneasy feeling returns but he just puffs his chest out, adjusts his sunglasses, and pushes on. Franky parks his surfboard on an unoccupied section of the northern beach and heads inland. The closer he got the louder the gunfire became and he peers down from the mesa, the main carnival area where the ferris wheel and all sorts of other attractions once were is now the battlefield for these two factions. After a minute of scanning around he spots the bunker being defended to the last man by the marines, there’s some big officer figures around and at least a vice admiral or two.

A strange sensation runs through his skin, new and uncomfortable, and he quickly looks over at the ferris wheel, not exactly sure why until he spots someone leaping up into the air. Franky really wishes he did install those eyeball improvements because he couldn’t see much beside a lightning quick flash of a sword before the massive ferris wheel groans and splits away from the support towers. It crashes into the ground and rolls towards where the marines are entrenched, devastating a decent portion of them until its stopped by strands of massive, pink hair before being destroyed apart by two figures clad in black.

Franky immediately knows who they are, the boogeymen of every no-gooder, the rabid watchdogs of the Tower of Justice, the infamous CP9 in all their blackened glory. There’s no question to it, the marines were protecting something big.

He can’t risk capture but he has to get in there somehow and destroy whatever it was to keep it from the marines and the revolutionaries. Franky tilts his head and concentrates his hearing on the marine’s camp in hopes of catching parts out of their plans.

“Lieutenant! Have you heard back from HQ?”

“Admiral Aokiji will be arriving with the reserves in two hours, sir! Until then orders are to hold position.”

“We don’t blasting have one hour, much less two! What about the rest of CP9?”

“They haven’t said anything, sir.”

“Blasting bureaucrats. Fine, relay the orders and bring out the explosives. We will defend this position until they come, we have to.”

Franky sits back, legs crossed and arms folded, and groans. He’s got less than two hours to pull the greatest one-up over these punks.

“Right, let’s have some fun.”

~*~

If Dragon predicted this outcome Ronin was going to show what exactly he did to overgrow lizards who thought themselves invulnerable flying high in the skies. He lands atop of one of the support towers and glares down at the marines, Sabo jumps on the other tower and adjusts his top hat.

“Don’t tell me you got winded from that, old man,” Sabo grins at him and breezily ignores the death glare directed at him, tapping his cane against his shoulder. “Koala picked up chatter that an admiral is on their way, let’s wrap this up.”

“Heh. Fighting an admiral will be more of a challenge than these weaklings.”

“Not again!” Sabo squawks and slumps forward. “You can’t go around fighting every admiral that you come across.”

“Guess that settles it,” Ronin says.

 _“Ronin,”_ Sabo sounds exasperated and tired. Good.

Without letting him finish Ronin jumps down and lets out a series of slashes that carves through the marine forces.

“Dragon’s orders are to retrieve the plans and destroy the workshop.”

“Do that, I’m staying.”

A series of cannon fires resound through the air and Sabo sprints forward and leaps, grabbing the cannonball mid-air with his hand before catapulting it back. He blows on his smoking hand and shakes it around as the explosion hits a section of the marines.

Sabo gives him an annoyed look. “I will knock you out and drag you back, old man.”

“Just try it brat,” Ronin snarls dangerously around Wado’s hilt, knowing that once again the threat fell on deaf ears, and turns his attention to the marines opening fire at them.

He deflects the bullets and rushes at their front-line in a blink of an eye, most jumping back in shock at this sudden appearance and reeking of fear. Ronin sends out a whirlwinds of slashes, advancing forward before the bodies even fell, and launches himself airborne just as a kick strikes his previous position. He angles his sword down and descends, the force of it shattering a large radius of the ground around them, and looks up at the wolf zoan glaring at him mid-jump.

“Oho, even the One Eyed Demon is here. I can’t wait to rip your throat and watch you bleed,” he taunts, tongue licking sharp canines as he brandishes his claws.

“Run along pup, before I gut you.”

He snarls and lunges down at him with a howl, but before they could clash Sabo intercepts him. “Clear the way to the bunker! I got this mutt.”

“Who the hell are you calling a mutt?!”

With a roll of his eye Ronin continues on, cutting down fodder by the dozen. A loud boom thunders through the valley, the source of it coming from the mountains above, and the earth begins to shake and rumble, promising peril and ruin. Smaller series of explosions set off moments later and the face of the mountain collapses, large chunks of rock breaking off and rolling down. Right then, he’s going to have to keep the bunker clear of that mess.

Ronin runs over and leaps off the head of a larger marine, the landslide looked to be concentrated towards the middle of the valley and the bunker was on the western side of it. Slashing out with his swords, mimicking the movements of a crow taking flight, he cuts through the initial surge of the avalanche and jumps onto a large rock flying above him. He keeps up the momentum, mind calm and calculating, and cuts the worst of it into numerous smaller pieces as the marines below him scramble for cover.

From atop the mountain he sees something descending rapidly and after a few moments of staring at it he realizes just what it is. Franky, looking so jarringly out of place in that smaller body, was surfing down the rockslide and does his ridiculous pose as he’s midair. His surfboard belches out a gout of flame behind it, adding to the overall surreal nature of it.

“Yow!” Franky cries out and does a handstand.

It's surprisingly good to see him despite the circumstances, the rockslide was probably his reckless idea.

Bright pink strands of hair shoot out towards him and latches onto Shuusui. “Yoi! Yoyoi! Now, now! What have we here?”

Ronin glares down at the other CP9 agent, their names forgotten, and pulls back sharply with his arm before he lets go of his sword. His opponent stumbles back by just one step and Ronin switches Wadou into his hand, the worn straps around the hilt fitting into the grooves of his fingers with comforting ease. He charges down, the rock he was on shattering from the force of the jump, and the strike is barely blocked in time by the khakkhara, the rings of the staff rattling wildly from the impact.

Sparks fly as metal screech and Ronin bears down with his full strength, he’ll win this easily. Something catches the corner of his eye and Ronin disengages just as a surfboard slams into the knockoff kabuki and throws him across the valley. He sheathes Wadou and holds out his arm to catch Shuusui spinning rapidly down before looking over at Franky, who is looking as pleased as as he could be with that shit eating grin.

“ _Super_! Oi, oi. You’re one of the revolutionaries right? What’s the big deal?” Franky asks, pushing up his sunglasses and pointing at him, sounding incredulous.

“A party,” Ronin replies in a deadpan, shrugging lightly.

“A comedian, eh? Well whatever you guys came here for is now mine, okay? Yow!”

The rockslide was calming down finally, he turns his attention back to the bunker and cracks his neck. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

Between the two of them it becomes trivial to clear out the marines. However, as they approach the entrance Franky stops him from taking a step forward as an explosion collapses the bunker.

“They’d rather bury themselves alive than give up whatever's down there but,” Franky says as he aims with his hands, “I’m here to win, sorry marines!”

His Coup De Vent clears out the rubble without much trouble but his hair is beginning to sag. The inside of the structure past the entrance is still whole and secure but the old injury in his knee still flares up, a faint ache in the section of the joint.

“Don’t like being underground?”

“Hm.”

“Heh, you’re a real talkative one. Are all the revolutionaries like you or do you have the monopoly on the brooding shtick?”

Ronin shrugs with one shoulder and cuts open the steel door ahead of them, ducking inside quickly and hiding behind a pillar as bullets fly straight at them.

“Hah! Bullets don’t do a thing to me. I’m a cyborg!” Franky roars and charges forward and Ronin grimaces, bulletproof or not he was still being stupidly reckless.

As Ronin scans the room, taking a headcount of the marines, he hears an odd beeping noise and snaps his head around. “Franky watch out!”

Franky still steps on the landmine but he curls his arms down reflexively to protect himself. The explosion sends Franky crashing into the wall, his outer skin burned away with the metal on his arm and chest burst open and wires sparking all over. Rage fills through his chest and Ronin growls, a menacing sound, and slashes out furiously. The projectile cuts through their barricades, the marines, and the wall to the chamber behind them.

He runs over to Franky’s side and fruitlessly checks him over, having not an idea if he’s still functional or not in this body. He’s breathing at least. As he thinks over the risks of moving Franky, the cyborg coughs and opens his eyes, his left arm glitching out with aborted movements for a few seconds before it finally lifts up. The right arm wasn’t moving. Franky begins the methodical, if slow, process of bending the metal of his body back to cover the more vulnerable areas.

“These marines sure like playing dirty. Heh, wipe that worried look your face Mr. Broody. I’ll be back up, this week’s Franky is still going strong.”

“Watch where you’re stepping next time,” Ronin replies sharply and stands up, sighing with relief. “I’ll be back.”

Franky nods as he turns away and heads into the next room, senses on high alert. This room is bare of any traps and in the middle of it there is a large piece of machinery, gears in constant motion as it continues to assemble whatever it was designed for despite the large cut going through it. _Seastone bombs_ , a voice that’s similar to Koala’s rings out in his head. She took care of securing the plans for it so all he had to do was to destroy it, easy enough. He draws out his swords.

As he’s walking back from his finished task he sees Franky slowly get up on his feet, the metal on one of them is bent awkwardly but he still looked like he could walk. “Oi, do me a favor Broody and grab that bomb right next to you.”

Raising a brow Ronin bends down and picks up the surprisingly heavy bomb lying near the bodies of the marines and looks it over.

“I’m guessing that those are no ordinary bombs. Those babies sure packed a _super_ punch on that mountain,” Franky says, smoke curling out of his grinning mouth.

“Yeah.”

He walks next to Franky to help steady him as they leave the bunker and right at the entrance of it he turns back, the last seastone bomb still in hand.

“Let’s light that baby up. Yow!”

Nodding, Ronin holds it up to one of Franky’s sparking wires, igniting it before tossing it back into the bunker. As they’re walking away the bunker explodes, shooting fiery rubble into the air.

“Old man! You took your time.”

“Brat,” he retorts somewhat fondly.

Aside from his torn coat and some scratches Sabo looked fine and his stare turns questioning as he spots Franky. “Friend of yours?”

“Something like that. He needs to be dropped off at Water 7.”

"I'm surprised I didn't have you drag you away this time," Sabo says and dodges the swift kick with a toothy grin.

Franky’s looking at him oddly, head tilted, but he doesn’t say anything for the moment as they walk through the valley. In the middle of the night with the battle over the area looks haunting. Odd jagged shadows cast by the ruined buildings, flickering alive from the remaining fires dotting across the field. They reach the extraction point where a boat is waiting and soon enough the isle is a faint outline on the horizon, and beyond it he sees a fleet of battleships approaching. Franky is sitting across him on the boat, wires still sparking as he slowly repairs what he can. 

“Koala and the rest are already heading back to base. We’ll swing by Water 7 and catch up,” Sabo says as he emerges from the cabin.

“You know you’re just delaying the inevitable”

Sabo grimaces and rubs the back of his head, “I’m sure she’ll forget about the whole thing when we’re back.”

Ronin snorts as he sits back, Sabo collapsing next to him and adopting a cheery smile. “Besides, this might a fun trip.”

He simply replies by making a noise that is neither in agreement or disagreement in his throat. Franky smirks at them as he bangs out a dent on his stomach compartment.

“Oi, you two planning on getting up to no good on my territory? I’ll have to keep my eyes on you troublemakers,” he says before barking with laughter.

“Ronin’s the one who gets into all the trouble, I swear every island we go to he ends up right in the middle of a large mess.”

“Shut it, brat,” Ronin grumbles and kicks at his legs.

The prospect of visiting Water 7 and Franky’s presence in itself brings back old memories, of a time when a small crew of nobodies declared war on the world itself and came out of it on top. He’s only half listening as Sabo recounts his embarrassing encounters to Franky while gazing out at the sky. Franky’s laughter is a comforting sound, oddly enough.

The older Franky wanted to outfit him with a cutting edge prosthetic, complete with rocket launchers per Luffy’s request. It was shot down immediately but he still helped out in smaller ways, adding in features on the Sunny that made it a little easier for him to go around the levels. At first he thought it was out of pity but like everyone else Franky did it simply out of care, ever thoughtful despite his brash and often eccentric nature.

Despite being called the Iron Pirate, Franky always had the biggest heart of them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zoro, your collateral damage is getting out of hand. 
> 
> This chapter was a bit of a struggle since I had to cut out the things I still wanted them to do for another chapter. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! You gentle readers are beyond awesome! I honestly don't think this story would have made this far without your continued interest :D


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out [this amazing art](http://mathemayjicks.tumblr.com/post/171321648298/wanted-to-draw-some-fanart-of-this-fic-its-gud-go) done by Mathemayjicks! Thank you again <3

The sunsets in Water 7 were breathtaking. Sabo’s been to many different islands but he’s never had the opportunity to simply pause and study the shades gradually shift and bleed across the canvas of the sky. A shade that is a mix of orange and pink, soft and warm, reminds him of Koala and he smiles sheepishly into his hand. He taps his boots against the pier and turns his head around to watch the metallic walls of the city behind him reflect those colors, brilliant hues of blues and pinks. While he cannot tell those colors apart completely they still look beautiful.

There is a part of him that marks down spots for snipers, maps out the lay of the streets, and evaluates the durability of the buildings if a fight ever broke out. It’s an unconscious habit, borne from training and necessity from his line of work. Their skirmishes consisted of urban warfare more often than not.

Sabo drags his thoughts back into admiring the sunset, breathing out even and calm as he crossed his arms. A soft breeze carrying the scent of industry and sharp metal flits past him and sweeps up his coat. He’s more used to the smoke and gunpowder that lingers perpetually on his clothes but these new scents are not unpleasant. All of his previous experiences with cities this large were during battles, rubble and ruin the only evidence of a civilization that was once was afterward. But here, on the edge of a city brimming with activity and of people living their day to day lives, he’s almost drowning in it all.

He wants to write it all down but he’s not sure if he’s even skilled enough to begin describing the experience. Doubt is an uncommon emotion but one that seems to keep a constant company whenever he’s sitting at his desk and tapping the quill against a barely filled journal, a stack of completed mission reports full of analytical details lying right next to it.

A child’s laugh makes him think of his brothers. The smell of decay and garbage reminds him of his childhood. The memories of those years were still a cluster of faded and intangible images that teased him with gone by details, but there are times of lucidity when he suddenly remembers the way Ace’s freckles stretched across his face when he frowned or smiled (there was one right under his right eye that never moved). The soft memory, the uncanny feeling of Luffy’s rubber limbs that weren’t bone solid and yet firmer than mere flesh as he hugged him.

“Oi, Sabo.” Sabo angles his head back and grins when he sees the Ronin walking towards him. He looks at ease, hand folded into his robe instead of resting it on the hilts of his swords.

“I’m actually surprised you’re here and not lost somewhere in the city,” he teases, laughing as Ronin shoots him an absolutely withering glare. Sucks for him because Sabo sees through his threats as clearly as glass.

“Watch it, brat. I need to take care of something and Franky needs cola. Go grab some from Blueno’s, will ya?”

Raising a brow Sabo catches up to him and matches their stride. “What’s this about?”

A flock of seagulls cry out above them, their feathers tips glowing warmly from the last lights of the sun. There’s a group of kids at the other edge of the pier throwing scraps at the birds despite the signs that say not to. Sabo shakes his head amusedly and turns his attention back to Ronin, who appears as if he hasn’t heard his question. He’s gazing ahead vacantly, brows slightly creased, and lightly rubs at the old scar over his chest with a thumb. Little things he’s taken notice of when Ronin is a melancholy mood, remembering one thing or another.

Sometimes he stares right at Sabo as if he’s looking at someone else entirely, head tilted in a perplexed manner. Ronin’s always been different in a way that made it...not hard but perhaps more unwelcome to analyze him. There was something jagged and broken under his skin and Sabo’s never wanted to delve in deeper.

Sabo walks a few steps closer to him and taps his elbow against his, drawing his attention back to the present.

“Hmm?” Ronin looks at him from the corner his eye, the query a low and drawn out sound.

A question sits on the end of his tongue but Sabo doesn’t know how to phrase it in the right way. For the last two days Ronin’s been more withdrawn than usual, which was saying something, and on the first night in Water 7 Ronin simply lay on the tall walls and gazed out at the sky. Maybe it was nothing but Sabo is not naive enough to hope that.

From a commander’s perspective Ronin was an invaluable soldier, although there was a reason he was never sent anywhere alone (horrible sense of direction aside). Not after the first time he came back, robes thick with blood and with an entire island’s population dead just to hunt down a single person called Doc Q.

“We’ll meet up at Franky’s House later, then?” Sabo asks, shelving his concerns to the side for now. He's here to relax.

“Yeah, don’t get into too much trouble brat.” Ronin flicks up his hat, hint of a smile curling around his mouth as he turns away and walks off.

Sabo mockingly salutes at his retreating back as an answers. He adjusts his hat and makes his way towards the other side of the city, through winding alleys and polished rooftops. Despite the late hour there were still many people out and about and-

Someone is following him.

He doesn't look back and keeps running across the roofs, silent and nimble, and drops down into a dark alleyway. Sabo kneels behind a stack of crates, breathing quiet and slow as he waits for his pursuers to pass. They will find out that he is no easy prey. In the peripheral of his senses he picks up on someone walking on the rooftops two streets over. They moved carefully but with purpose, steps precise like they knew the position of each and every shingle and tile.

The market street down the canal was his best choice so he stays low and sticks to the wall as he crept out of the alleyway. It it’s not as full as he would like but he moves between the stalls and nocturnal shoppers, doing subtle scans of the rooftops as he admires the goods on display. A shadow moves behind a chimney as he’s picking up an ornate dinner plate. With a smile Sabo places it back while the annoyed shopkeeper glares at him and makes his way over to the canal.

Sabo tosses a firecracker behind him and ducks into the shadow of a doorway, the store was locked but it only took him a moment to pick it open and slip inside the two story building just as the firecracker starts smoking and shooting out sparks. People cry out in alarm and the yagara bulls roar. He doesn’t immediately go out the backdoor and focuses in on the area with his haki, exhaling the way Ronin taught him. Whoever was following him was running across the rooftops with a dizzying speed and they stopped on the roof above him, pacing between both exits.

They were well trained but Sabo was better. He leaves a little present before he squeezes out of the small window that faced out into the canal, in an opposite direction of both doors, and digs his fingers into the masonry to scale up the wall. Right as the smoke bomb goes off he peeks his head up and glances at his pursuer, a tall man with a baseball cap and a long square nose, looking down at the exits with a hunter’s focus. Sabo moves himself to the other side of the building as the man walks over to scan the canal.

Sabo left his coat hanging over the window, making it look like it was snagged, and after a moment’s hesitation the man takes the bait and leaps across the rooftops to continue his search. It wouldn’t take him long to figure out he was duped so Sabo quickly grabs his coat and heads towards his destination. Blueno’s Bar was tucked away in a corner street and currently full of workers from around the area, deep in their drinks as they sang sea shanties and stomped their feet to mimic drum beats.

“Welcome to Blueno’s Bar, I’m Blueno. Haven’t seen your face here before,” the bartender says as Sabo sat at the bar -wow his voice really didn’t fit the size of his body. Sabo tips his hat at the bartender, smiling politely. “Evening, I’m here for a case of cola.”

Blueno nods and finishes a set of orders for his other patrons. “You got money?”

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Sabo says with a grin as he props his arms up on the countertop and rests his chin on one hand, boots against the steel of the stool.

The bartender’s face stays neutral and unconcerned even as Sabo pulls out his wallet and only after that does he duck into the backroom. While waiting Sabo looks back at studies the patrons, most of them still drunkenly singing. In the far corner sat a man with a top hat and a pigeon on shoulder, reading a book about carpentry despite the noise around him. He tilts his head up and looks directly at him, assessing and _cold_ , and it immediately sends alarm bells ringing through Sabo’s head. The man shifted in his seat, a very slight motion, and there is hidden strength underneath that pose of indifference, predatory and dangerous.

Sabo’s always had a good gut instinct about people and this one was trouble.

He draws his attention back when Blueno places a case of cola on the counter. “Here you go, come back again.”

Sabo nods his thanks and exits out of the bar, feeling the man’s gaze piercing into his back. Once outside he weaves between the coming and going patrons, just as he makes a turn into a street he bumps into someone.

“Ah, apologies there chap. I was bookin’ it and didn’t see you at all.”

“It’s my fault too, sorry about that,” Sabo says as he looks at the person and keeps smiling bashfully, keeps his posture relaxed. It was the man who was following him earlier, expression concerned and friendly. It definitely wasn’t coincidence or luck that he was here.

“You seem to be in a hurry, do you need help getting somewhere? I know the city’s layout mighty well if I do say so myself,” he smiles, hands on his hips.

“Would you? I got turned around on my way here earlier. My boss will kill me if I take too long to get back.” Sabo prattles out a random hotel’s name he saw before and straightens up.

“I know exactly where you need to go. By the by, my name is Kaku,” he says, tilting his head and smiling genially before he gestures for Sabo to follow. “You don’t look like you’re from around here. Where are you from, if you don’t mind me asking that is.”

“East Blue but I’ve been travelling on a merchant’s ship since I was a kid. You can call me Sabo.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Sabo. I work as a foreman on the docks and we get a lot of trading ships come in for repairs.”

They converse casually as they walk through the main streets with little bits of truth in answers that have just enough information in them to be satisfactory. Kaku was most likely a bounty hunter of some sort, no one normal would be hurling themselves across rooftops without the fear of breaking his neck. He had the slight advantage of preparation but Sabo had the element of surprise on his side, provided Kaku doesn’t know that _he knows_ who he was.

By Dragon’s ass there was a reason he never liked espionage and intel missions. Whereas Koala excelled at them as easy as breathing and manages to swagger into highly secure locations with only a wink and a smile. Well not as easy as that but _exceedingly_  far better at it than Sabo whose attempts are more reminiscent to a dying fish throwing itself at someone’s door and hoping they would take pity and let him in.

One time, with absolutely ludicrous amounts of bribes and favors that Sabo’s still paying off to this day, he convinced Ronin to go undercover with him. It ended in complete and utter disaster as predicted by their dear Koala. Not even ten minutes into the gala Ronin (posing as Sabo’s old and grumpy father) declared that his beard was too itchy, pulled it off, knocked out the guards, and promptly took a nap in a corner. So Sabo scrambled around like a headless chicken to salvage the scraps of the mission and his pride. He had to endure Koala’s jokes for months, years even and even now she will point at a chicken as say that’s him. Even _Dragon_ cracked a smile at that when he overheard it in the galley.

_“It just needs a little hat and it’s a shoe in for you. Maybe it will even turn in paperwork on time unlike a certain someone.”_

Right now Sabo was feeling much like how he felt back then as he’s scrambling for ideas, perhaps a little more dignified because he’s managing to hold the conversation rather amicably and appear very at ease. Kaku was speaking rather passionately about the history of Water 7’s architecture, pointing out certain landmarks they pass by, and he discovers that it’s actually rather interesting.

Wait, _focus_ Sabo. As soon as they reach a slightly dark alleyway Kaku will probably make his move and try to gut him. 

There were two primary methods to dealing with espionage missions gone sideways. One, to burn it down and go deep under, which was Sabo’s favored method with a lot of things. The second option was _‘Ivankov’s Special Maneuver’_ and for the first time in a long time he feels genuine fear crawl up his spine. Gods, maybe he should just take the risk and fight this one out. But then he would be abandoning Ronin and that was just like leaving a blind old dog all by itself to find its way home (despite the fact that said dog would tear off anyone’s face with a single bite).

“Hey Kaku, you said you were an accomplished woodworker? Since you just raised a structure in my pants.” Sabo’s rather proud of how he delivered that line, casually with a pinch of humor and a disarming smile. He’s absolutely mortified on the inside and thanks every last god that Koala isn’t here to witness this. Or anyone else in that matter.

It helps that Kaku reacts the way Sabo wants to outwardly, eyebrows shooting up under his cap as he stands there, frozen mid-step with his mouth slightly open. If his eyes got any wider they would be rolling on the ground at the moment.

“Ah, pardon me?” Kaku asks, only slightly wheezingly. One of his hands twitch like it wants to reach for a weapon that is most likely hidden away on his body.

“I’m just saying, your physical structures are out of this world and I would love to hear you talk more about the deep, rich history of this island. Maybe over dinner sometime?” Sabo drawls out and takes a step closer, body language open and inviting.

Ivankov would be crying tears of joy seeing him now, their hard taught lessons finally reaching fruition. Koala would be weeping breathlessly on the floor and dying from laughter.

Kaku blinks owlishly at him a few times, then a few more times for good measure. Something like surprise, brief yet genuine, flicks across his features as he looks away for a moment and clears his throat. “I, erm, hadn’t realized you’re currently that intoxicated Sabo. Let’s get you to your hotel post-haste. There is a shortcut we can take through this sidestreet.” He clears his throat again and points at an undoubtedly _not_ ominous and dark alley.

Sabo grins at him, wishing that they weren’t around the same height as he reaches forward and tugs at his hand. There are deep callouses across Kaku’s palm that aren’t entirely from carpentry. It’s also very warm to the touch he discovers.

“Awe that’s no fun, c’mon tell me more about this street,” Sabo says brightly and lightly pulls him towards a city square lined with lanterns.

Instead of breaking his fingers like Sabo half-expected him to Kaku stumbles after him awkwardly, expression positively flummoxed. He’s staring down at their hands like they were some wild beast about bite him but he has yet to yank his hand away.

“Sabo, I’m afraid that you’re not in your right mind at the moment.”

“I’m in just the right mindset and I have to ask. Just where do those legs of your end?”

Like a turtle retreating into its shell Kaku draws himself further into his jacket, the collar failing to hide the very slight blush spreading across his cheeks. He’s staring at Sabo like he’s grown a second head. Honestly, Sabo feels like he did. 

Since he’s more focused on watching Kaku’s minute reactions while walking backwards Sabo doesn’t look where he’s stepping and trips like a damn fool. Maybe someone else might have done it deliberately but it was just on sheer accident on his part. Right as he’s about to eat a mouthful of concrete, wondering about the choices that brought him to this moment, he remembers that Kaku is still holding his hand. On instinct he pulls and tries to balance himself. A wasted effort it seems, doomed even, since Kaku doesn’t become the sturdy support he wants him to be and starts falling with him.

  
Sabo manages to half twist himself to prevent his brain matter to splatter across the pavement but Kaku’s added weight on top of him -heavier than expected- has them both hitting the ground hard. His pride is more bruised than any part of him, at least the case of cola that he’s still holding wasn’t broken. Small victories.

He glances over and watches Kaku’s expression morph into something even more horrified as he realizes their position. Feeling a little more daring, because at this point embarrassment decided to crawl away and die in a corner of his mind, Sabo pulls his hand free and lifts it up to adjust the cap that’s gone askew with a grin.

“So, is that a knife in your pants or are you just happy to see me?”

They stare at each other for a little while before Kaku snorts and shakes his head, both of them dissolving into laughter as their ridiculous situation dawns on them. Kaku’s ducks his head to the side as he laughs, full bodied and warm. After a minute or two they finally calm down and Kaku props his arm over Sabo’s chest, fingers curling around his chin as he looks down at him.

“Which would you prefer?” he says low and dangerous. With a bite of hostility and playfulness as his mouth curls up sharply.

It’s a challenge. A dare. And Sabo’s never been one to back down from any fight.

He just hopes Ronin will appreciate his efforts to not get into _too_ much trouble.

~*~

Elsewhere, two men sat in a corner of a bar that’s slowly winding down. An old and grizzled swordsman decorated in scars old and numerous drank with one leg propped on a vacant chair. Across him a man with a top hat and a deep scowl looked like he was trying to ignore the other’s presence but little success.

“Don’t answer through your bird Lucci. No one else is around.”

Silence.

“Whatever. Here’s another question for you.” Ronin points at him with the bottle and huffs at the glare that could rival the destructive force of a _Shigan_ is directed at him. “What would you do when you find out that everything you’ve worked for, lived and breathed for, ends up being a complete and total lie? When there is no more reason?”

“Do you find a new cause? Start over? Or do you accept the lie for what it is? No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk that path.”

“Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. Are you going to keep spouting more drivel?” Lucci hisses out quietly, only just loud enough for him to hear.

“Not really. I’m just here to have a drink.”

“I should kill you right now.”

“You can try,” Ronin replies easily and raises his bottle to toast him. It was relaxing in a roundabout manner, Lucci was just as he expected him to be. A threat, a dangerous thing. A killer trained to end him in countless ways and Ronin is anticipating it, eagerly perhaps.

But they both know it won’t happen. So he drinks. Remembers the burning bright, bleeding anger that raged out of Lucci as he slaughtered both marines and pirates without consideration when presented with a hard truth than none of them wanted to hear. Ronin doesn’t think of himself, not even for a moment, of being capable to change an individual’s entire way of thinking with one conversation or even a hundred more. Integrity was something he admired in another, no matter who the person was.

He was more curious than anything else, to see if there was a difference between this Lucci and the other. Maybe there was some, maybe there was not. Ronin doesn’t know enough to tell, doesn’t want to really. He is not the type to dissect someone and try to understand each of their motives, there was no point. Intent wasn’t something to comprehend but to acknowledge.

Lucci raises his hand slightly and the bartender drops off a glass and a bottle of something dark and strong.

The silence between them is almost companionable, an unspoken respect between two killers as they toed around the lines of civility. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If someone told me that I would end up shipping Sabo and Kaku as a joke at the beginning of this I would have not believed it for one moment. But here we are...  
> There's gonna be one more Water 7 centric chapter before we move on to the other parts of the story. I'm having more fun with this than I anticipated. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and leaving kudos/comments! You guys rock <3
> 
> Also if you wanna yell about fandom stuff with me I got a [Tumblr](http://amichie.tumblr.com/)


	13. Chapter 13

It’s a dream. Here he is standing in field full of columbine flowers, the soft purple of their petals bleeding into the sky. Or perhaps the countless stars themselves are falling down on the delicate corollas like raindrops, it’s impossible to truly tell. He is not sure why he’s dreaming of the field from his home island, he hasn’t thought of this place since he left it years -decades- ago. The flowers are swaying back and forth like a still drying painting from a wind he does not feel.

“Hey Zoro.” That voice was familiar, painfully so. Bright and clear and much like sunshine after a storm. His name is said in the same tone one would say they’re _home_ after a long voyage, full of warmth and love and longing.

He doesn’t want to turn around and face the undeniable truth. He _wants_ to turn around and see him. The scenery changes into something that’s incomprehensible but it’s a place he knows deep down to his bones. He places both hands on the smooth railing and leans forward until he is increments away from falling overboard.

The horizon is a never-ending azure dawn with bright and countless stars glimmering in the ocean.

“Hey captain,” he murmurs as he stares ahead.

The presence behind him is warm, embers of a fire settling deep into his being and fueling a heavy emotion, a feeling, that he hasn’t felt in many years. This dream will end like the many others but until then he is content with the memory, the sensation of someone wrapping their hands around him and squeezing, tight and secure.

It’s a cruel sort of kindness.

~*~

Sabo sits up. Nothing in particular woke him up, the noise outside was the same cacophonous din of civilization and industry waking up outside, no one was in his room. Yet, something is making him wary as he slowly inspects his surroundings. The curtains flutter from the breeze and he realizes his window is open. He closed it last night before he went to bed in this cheap hotel.

Other than being disgustingly sticky, the same as it was before, the floor didn’t have any surprise traps laying in wait for him. Sabo pads over and checks the window sill and finds nothing. Maybe he was being a little too jumpy after last night, he sighs and pokes his arm out the window to gather the morning rain in his palm.

“Good morning.”

“Fuck!”

Out of pure reflex he spins around and grabs the other person by the neck and wraps a leg around, hitting the back of knee to destabilize them before he slams them down onto the ground. Sabo pushes his knee down with immense force, right over the solar plexus and raises his other hand at the ready to strike down. It takes him another moment to realize who exactly is under him.

“How did you get here?” Sabo demands.

“Well after you knocked me out -ah I’m having trouble breathing. Could you please take your weight off my chest?” Kaku says, without any difficulty despite his words, and adjusts his askew cap.

Sabo digs in his knee just a little bit more and grins at the way Kaku’s mouth forms into a thin line. “After I knocked you out and poured cola all over you?”

“You have rather distinct facial features. After questioning enough people I narrowed down the possible places you might’ve gone to and then I went around checking each of them.”

“Awfully thorough for a foreman, aren’t you?”

“Ah, but you figured out that I’m not just that. Nice punch by the by, I was not expecting it at all,” Kaku says with a smile, palms open and raised up. He feels Kaku’s muscles tense up beneath him, far more powerful than any normal range.

Even if his hands are empty Kaku is far from defenseless, especially in this position, and Sabo knows a thing or two about using your entire body as a weapon. “You passed up on a good opportunity  to kill me. Question is why.”

“You're not my current mission, otherwise our positions would be reversed. As it stands there are four different ways I can break out of your hold. None end favorably for you.”

At his raised brow Kaku twists his body and in a feat of dexterity that’s more to Luffy’s style of bending, pulls his leg around and hooks it around Sabo’s while grabbing onto his arm and flipping their positions. With his free arm Sabo stops the momentum and kicks out and after that it’s just a constant struggle of reflexes and strength as they try to pin the other to the ground.

Minutes pass by and Sabo manages to pry him off and put Kaku in a headlock, panting heavily as they’re both sprawl in a very dignified manner on the sticky floor. “Wait, were you hiding under the bed?”

“You come to that conclusion now?” Kaku says with an annoyed lilt as he pokes a finger against Sabo’s cheek.

He couldn’t help it, he giggles at the imagery of Kaku scurrying under the bed as he sneaks in through the window like some creep. Kaku turns his head away, burrowing into his jacket, and Sabo laughs even harder when he sees the tip of his nose starting to turn a faint pink.

“It was the optimal location given the sparse furniture,” he mutters and jabs his elbow against Sabo’s stomach, snorting as Sabo coughs and chokes on his breath between gasps of laughter.

“I won’t tell anyone, promise. As long as you agree I won this one,” Sabo says breathlessly, echoes of laughter in each word. His cheeks are beginning to ache.

Kaku pokes his cheek again, looking none too mollified. “If this were a real fight you would be dead.”

“Yeah, yeah like I haven’t heard that one before. C’mon, give up,” he retorts and tightens his hold as a way to further his point.

Kaku shakes his head before tilting it to give Sabo a _look_ that promises a painful death. “Best out of three then.”

“ _Fine_ ,” Sabo drags out the word with a deep sigh. He then leans forward and grins, smooshing his cheek against Kaku’s. “Loser buys breakfast?”

“Acceptable.”

The second match goes to Kaku. Their third match has to be postponed when the landlord kicks their door in and accuses them of being up to indecent acts before she launches a rolling pin at them with deadly precision. The old lady should be a sharpshooter, he’s pretty sure the perfectly cylindrical bruise will be staying on his back for a few days. Kaku, the absolute bastard, keeps snickering and adding in little quips that he thought was so damn funny.

At this point Sabo would prefer they were actually fighting instead of eating at a nice little outdoor cafe. It’s odd, considering that only last night he was sure Kaku was tracking him down like a bloodhound. Sabo still doesn't know what to make of him exactly, only that he's skilled and has a profession involving missions and bounties. Which is partially the reason he didn’t go back to Franky’s, he didn’t want to put those guys at risk and besides, Ronin liked Franky.

It’s an uncommon occurrence and Sabo had to do a double take while Ronin _laughed_ when Franky called him _Rono-bro!_

“I don’t think that’s what they meant when they say just _roll_ with it,” Kaku says, all too proud of that line as he twirls his fork at him.

Sabo catapults a spoonful of fruit at him right then, effectively declaring war as a banana slice pitifully slides off the bill of his cap. The little table turns into a battlefield as dishes and cups turn into trenches, innocent bystanders turn into casualties, and it's all very worth it when he lands yogurt on Kaku’s nose.

He's wheezing and slamming his hands on the table, choking with laughter as Kaku sends him a look reserved for dead men walking as he reaches for the bowl of oatmeal. In the end no one comes out of that looking pretty and the angry owner bans them from ever coming back.

“Sabo!”

A sharp voice rises over the crowd and he raises his head, tilting it to the side as he spots Koala marching towards them. She’s in disguise, of course, with a blonde wig and a dress.

“Where’s Ronin?”

“I don’t know, why are you here?”

Koala flips her hair back, hand briefly forming the sign for a distress call. To the side Kaku is watching them critically with that razor sharp focus from before, there is the promise of threat in the lines of his shoulders.

Sabo turns and winks at him, smiling brightly. “It’s been fun Kaku, let’s meet up again!”

A merchant’s cart cuts between and they disappear into the crowd.

~*~

Franky’s going through the haul from the other day, sorting out useful parts from scrap that will be melted down and reused later, humming along with the radio and tapping his feet against the floor. The hydraulics in the one of of his legs is still a little off and it’s making him miss the beat by just a moment and he’s also noticing that his shoulders are still a little stiff. His right middle and pinky fingers stall for a millisecond as he’s pulling apart an engine and Franky adds that to the growing list of repairs he needs to do later.

It’s the early hours of the morning and he just wants to get away from his little family for a while and do anything other than repairing himself. He loves them dearly but the amount of hovering they were doing was definitely _uncool_. There was also just something cathartic about pulling apart machinery and digging into how each one worked. Even the cheapest and oldest parts are treated with respect because someone made it, someone poured a little part of themselves into their work and created something amazing.

A machine is built with purpose, built with hands that _want_ it to exist, and when that purpose is fulfilled it can be smelted down and reused. Those who simply toss something away because it no longer works are people Franky likes the least out of all.

“Big bro! What the hell are you doing here?”

“What’s it look like Zambai-bro? I’m working!” Franky barks out without looking back and continues to disassemble the warship engine, an absolutely beautiful piece of machinery. It was a stroke of luck that it was still in working condition. He coos at it, tearing up at the pretty purr that roars out of the engines when he cranks it just so. What a _super_ beast.

“You need to be back in bed, you shouldn’t even be walking on that leg!”

“I’m still feeling strong this week so quit your worrying and hand me that spanner.”

Zambai growls out something incomprehensible before he waddles over to him and holds out the spanner. “Our boys lost track of both those guests of your by the way big bro,” he says in a disappointed tone as he adjusts his single goggle.

“Eh. It doesn’t matter. I’ve got a _super_ feeling that they’ll turn up again somewhere.”

No matter how you look at it those two revolutionary boys had trouble written all over them. In a place like Water 7, practically a stone’s throw away from the Gates of Justice, they were bound to cause a mess one way or another. In any case it’s not his problem for the moment. 

~*~

He picks his nose and flicks the boogers into the winds. This section of the beach is quiet, the rundown pier halfway submerged into the sea as rotting planks creak and moan with every step. Ronin sits down at a stable spot, legs hanging over the edge and kicking absently at the waves as he gazes out at the horizon, at the approaching marine fleet. He’s more surprised at the matter of them taking so long to get here than them being here at all.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?”

If silence was disapproval then Lucci would be exuding a deadly amount of it -which he is- with arms crossed and glaring at nothing in particular (the world). The pigeon pecks at stray seaweed as Lucci shifts his attention to him in full. “I am excused for the day.”

“Let’s kill each other another time,” Ronin replies, rotating his wrist and listens to all the joints and ligaments crack. “Maybe then your heart will be into it.”

“My convictions will not be weighed down by the weakness afflicting yours,” Lucci sneers.

Violence was an inexorable, inseparable entity for individuals like them, both sovereign and shackled to it. Driven by purpose, a dogma, and while he cannot understand Lucci’s reasons he can understand his dedication. Nevertheless, there is one lesson he has learned throughout his journey, that if one’s heart is filled with nothing but cruel intentions it is bound to be hollow, and any and all power becomes meaningless. That is why Lucci lost to Luffy all those years ago and will again.

Ronin shrugs lightly, the wind growing chiller by the minute as the fleet nears. It’s time he moves on from here. Sabo and Koala will be off the island soon, Franky will still be around until the Strawhats stop by in a few years, and CP9 will still be a threat. He stands up and flicks Wado out of its sheath briefly, the metal gleaming with the rays of the sun, and turns on his heel.

“You are more foolish than I thought,” Lucci remarks coldly as Ronin walks past him.

“Fate tends to catch up when you don’t act.”

“Pity yours brought you here.”

The sea is freezing over. The marines can bring thousands, tens of thousands of enemies and he will not be stopped here. “Sorry, your justice will have to wait. I got one more name on my list.”

_“I never see what has been done; only what needs to be done,”_ Lucci recites in a neutral tone.

“Something like that.”

He taps his fingers against the hilt of his swords and moves forward.

~*~

“Ronin left a message, a set of coordinates and a single line saying to meet him there in two and a half years.”

Koala hands him the transcript and goes back to steering the cutter between marine patrols.

“Alabasta, huh? Well hopefully he won’t get lost getting there.”

“You’re the one that has to explain to Dragon why he left.”

“I don’t think it will be a surprise for him, Ronin was always looking toward the next horizon.”

Like he didn’t belong in the current moment, always searching for an answer to a question that crawls under his skin. Sabo ambles over to Koala and keeps an eye out for any other ships, their partnership as easy as breathing as she updates him on what he’s missed out in the past few days.

“It’s still rude of him to not say goodbye,” Koala pouts and that’s something Sabo can agree on.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -brawls with writers block like it's the wwe-
> 
> Life's gotten a little hectic but I hope I can get back into the swing of writing again. As always, thank you dear readers for continuing to support this story. You guys are wonderful!


	14. Strawhat intermission 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things change, things stay the same

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out [this AWESOME art](https://secretuncle.tumblr.com/post/171921201729/yoooooo-everyone-any-one-who-sees) by SecretUncle! <3

 Luffy launches himself up Merry’s figurehead and runs his hands over the carved horns, the weathered grooves smooth and sun bleached. It was a cloudless, joyful day and he basks in the warm rays of the sun, limbs hanging loose as the wind carried away his worries. But one thought lingered, about the robed man at Loguetown had held his arm and his gaze for one moment as he grinned, the red crisscross tattoos stretching across his face.

_“I’m proud of you.”_

That was all he said, lightning and heavy rain muting them world around them, before he let go and Luffy stumbled to catch up to his friends.

He rests his cheek against Merry and rubs his forehead. The mystery man was giving him an awful headache but he knew just the cure for it. It was still a while before the appointed dinner time but he thinks it’s silly for them to have set times to eat food. People should eat when they’re hungry! He grabs onto the railings and flings himself onto the main deck.

“Sanji!”

“What?” Sanji yells back, their voice slightly muffled from within the kitchen.

“I’m hungry!”

Sanji props open the door with one leg as they mix something in a bowl. “When are you ever not hungry Luffy? Go take a nap with the moss-head or something until dinner is ready,” they say, pointing a wooden spoon at the sleeping Zoro propped beside the stairs.

Nami leans on the railings above them, the leaves of the mikan trees rustling from the playful winds behind her. She’s smiling bright and cat like, chin resting on an open palm, and she gently throws a single mikan down at him. Lucky!

“Ooh! Thanks Nami.”

“You knew what you were getting into with this one Sanji. He’s our bottomless pit of a captain now.”

“No one else can keep up with his insatiable appetite anyway. Nami dear, would you like something to drink?” Sanji asks.

Nami and Sanji continue to talk, their subject shifting towards the estimated time until they hit the next island. Usopp looks away from his cool looking project and chimes in with modifications for Merry and Luffy tunes out the words of their conversation, simply listening to the calm tones of their voices and smiling brightly instead. He’s glad his friends are smarter than him when it came to stuff like that, he knew that these were the people he wanted to sail with from the moment they met years ago.

Luffy makes his way towards the still napping Zoro, peeling away the skin of the mikan impatiently and making sticky sweet juice run down his fingers. He plops down next to Zoro, bumping their legs together and licking his fingers clean before eating the rest of the mikan. Zoro lazily cracks an eye open and taps his foot against Luffy’s.

“You ready for the Grandline, captain?” Zoro’s voice is still heavy with sleep, the words spoken with a rumbly and gruff bass, but the way he says his title makes Luffy smile even wider. It sounds better than the other few times he’s used it, official yet friendly and warm. Like the spiced tea Sanji makes (the recipe taught by Makino).

“Yep!”

Zoro nods at his answer and folds his arms behind his head. The scars on his chest stretch from the movement, the healing skin still raw and an angry red, and Luffy reaches out to touch the edges of it that start by his shoulder. He's seen a scar like this before, old and faded, the skin barely raised and smoothed out by time. The muscles in Zoro’s chest twitch when his fingers glide over it, over the pink flesh that still looks like it's a hard press away from bleeding all over again.

“Quit it,” Zoro mumbles and rolls his shoulder to push his wandering hand away, grinning at him in a challenging manner.

He swings his legs over Zoro’s and sidles up next to him, who only stiffens momentarily before he wraps an arm over Luffy’s shoulder. Luffy makes himself more comfortable, resting his head over Zoro’s biceps, humming thoughtfully as he studied his face.

“You remind me of someone Ace and I knew as kids.”

_A rough, calloused hand that combed back his hair as he fell asleep listening to a steady heartbeat, surrounded by the scent of metal and an undeniable safety._

“Yeah?” Zoro asks curiously, one brow arched.

“He’s also a swordsman! Roro had one arm and one eye, he was really cool.”

Nami turns her attention towards them, pointing at her head. “Wait, did he have white hair too?”

“Yeah! He was old but not _as_ old and grandad.”

“I think he’s the one who came by my island and took care of the fishmen I told you about.”

“Oh! That sounds like him,” he says, chuckling.

“Now that I think about it, Zoro does look similar to him. You never knew your dad, right?” Nami asks, head tilted in a considering manner.

Zoro furrows his brows and glares down at the patterns of the deck with a deep frown, and Sanji smirks. “Careful, if you think any harder you might blow something.”

“Shut it, curly-brow,” he snaps back before he settles on rubbing his chin. “No, I never met my dad but I doubt this guy’s him. Mine died when I was still a baby.”

“Awe, a little moss-baby. How adorable,” Sanji teases lightly and it makes the frown on Zoro’s face change into something less severe. They laugh as Zoro flips them off. Luffy picks apart one piece of the mikan and shoves it against Zoro’s mouth, whose brows are furrowed and he firmly keeps his mouth shut even as Luffy presses even more insistently. Finally after staring Luffy down he eats it, the lines around his eyes growing softer.

“Or maybe it was an elaborate story made by your family to fool you! To hide the fact about your wandering father,” Usopp declares as he adjusts his goggles.

“Nope,” Zoro states flatly and tilts his head back, hitting the stairs lightly, and raises a brow as if he’s daring anyone else to say more on the matter.

“I think you guys will like him when we meet. He gives great hugs too!” Luffy says brightly.

Sanji ducks back into the kitchen and whatever they're cooking smells amazing, anything they make does. Luffy’s stomach rumbles and Zoro huffs amusedly as he scratched his chest.

“This scar is so damn itchy.”

“I'll lick it better then!” Just like with mosquito bites! Ace always told him to lick them to make the itchy sensation stop. It wasn’t as a great of a solution compared to Makino’s, she dabbed yogurt over the bites but then again he always ended up licking the yogurt before it dried anyway.

“W _hat._ ”

“Oi Luffy, you can’t eat your crewmates unless it’s a last resort,” Usopp says, wagging a finger at him.

“I’m pretty sure Zoro wouldn’t mind getting eaten by him.”

“Why did you have to say that Nami?! Now it’s stuck in my head!” Usopp laments as he claws at his eye sockets.

Luffy doesn’t want to eat any of his friends so he’s not entirely sure why Nami’s laughing breathlessly or why Zoro’s turning a shade of red that’s a stark contrast with his hair. He’ll ask about it later since Sanji just announced that the food is ready.

After the delicious dinner they all pile up on the deck together. Usopp has his head on Nami’s lap, playing a light tune with the harmonica as she expertly braids his hair. Luffy is using Usopp’s tummy as a pillow and Zoro sits a little off to the side with his cards, still close enough for Luffy to place his legs over his again.

Sanji sits next to them, lounging in one of Nami’s skirts, with a handful of cards that they’re sorting through. It's gotten to the point where they all exchange and share clothing between them without any fuss. Some days Luffy likes to wear Nami’s dresses since they were comfy and made the business down there so much simpler.

“Luffy, pick two,” Sanji says and holds out their cards. “Now pick two from moss-head’s and swap them.”

“I’m betting this week’s laundry duty on Sanji’s win, you wanna take me up on it Usopp?”

“G-geez no way Nami, you two play the most cards out of us. Zoro doesn’t have a chance.”

“Oi.”

“Zoro can win this!”

“If he thought with his head instead of his swords for once, it’s so unused it’s grown green.”

“Shut it curly-brow and prepare to get trounced!”

Watching them play cards was always fun, their faces twist into funniest expressions. He's glad Sanji and Zoro are getting along better compared to their first meeting.

_Sanji made a noise like a startled cat when they found out what took them to so long, and drops the half empty pack of cigarettes into the sea before they looked Zoro up and down with a critical gaze._

_“Oi Luffy, what were you thinking when you invited a man who has Pirate Hunter in his name into the crew when you're a pirate?”_

_“You're not his keeper curly-brow, no one asked you.”_

_“I'm his damned chef, it's practically the same thing,” they say, chewing the inside of their cheek. “But he's our captain and you're stuck with us now moss-head. Regardless of my opinion.”_

The night breeze is nice and Usopp makes the best, softest pillow and Luffy has to fight to keep his eyes open. He listens to the soft gurgles of his pillows stomach and his thoughts drift away with the waves gently crashing against Merry’s hull. Luffy’s out here sailing with his friends and out there somewhere in the vast, blue of the world are his brothers making their own journey. And Shanks, and Roro. He can’t wait to see them.

Someone adjusts his hat and then he feels himself being moved around as sturdy arms pick him up. They smell like metal and the sea and he feels cozy, safe.

~*~

After all the trouble at Reverse Mountain -fighting a _whale_ out of all things- Sanji shouldn’t be surprised because Luffy will pick a fight with anything and anyone bigger than him and from _that_ mess they jumped straight into another one. Sanji’s a little annoyed to have slept through the fight on Whiskey Peak, especially since it involved rescuing the lovely Miss Wednesday from a most sinister of circumstances. They’ve always been a romantic at heart and her tale of saving her country pulled at their heartstrings, how much must she have sacrificed to get this far, Sanji wonders.

They look up from checking the pantry as a commotion erupts outside and through the porthole Sanji sees a woman sitting on the railing, cowboy hat tipped to the side as she flipped a delicate bone dagger up and down the air.

“How unfortunate...small-time pirates having to look after a princess targeted by the entire Baroque Works organization…” Miss All Sunday says, words melodic and grave. “And a lone princess having to entrust herself to a few small-time pirates.”

She flicks back Luffy’s hat. “You remind me of an old friend, Strawhat. He too was a bold man and well...I don’t dislike bold men.” Sanji notices how her eyes flick over to Zoro before she returns her attention to Luffy, smile dangerous. Empty.

Even as Sanji places themselves in front of Vivi there is a part of them that wants to know why the Baroque Works officer is smiling that way.

“But even bold men cannot fight the sea itself. The island known as “Little Garden” is ahead of you and I would rather if you make it to Alabasta to face Crocodile,” she says and throws an eternal log pose towards Luffy. “Afterall, only fools rush in.”

Of course Luffy denies her help, always forging his own path ahead with that damned determination. As she sails away on a turtle Sanji does their best to reassure Vivi, what a sweet name, they think again. Whoever was responsible for the misery in her country sounded like an absolute bastard and Sanji has dealt with one too many to know that they’re all simply wretches with nothing but giant egos.

Some food and drinks would do good for all them. Luffy’s demanding breakfast, when isn’t he ever not demanding food, but it’s flattering in a way to have every dish and plate licked cleaned by their friends at the end of every meal. In the quiat of the little kitchen Sanji taps their feet against the floor and looks over their stock, one hand idly reaching into a pocket for a packet of cigarettes that’s not there.

Quitting was terrible, terrible beast on its own but after Sanji started smoking some years ago they’ve noticed that Usopp’s developed a nasty cough when he’s around them. Luffy, benignly and without any double meaning, had asked why Sanji smoked anyways and they realized that no answer was suitable. The other cooks did it often at the Baratie, the old goat was a walking chimney pipe outside of works hours, but Sanji never questioned it when they first started.

Sanji wasn’t proud of smoking during those weeks after Luffy’s 17th birthday when none of them heard from him. If nothing else, they convinced themselves the action soothed their nerves. So engrossed in their own thoughts Sanji didn’t even notice someone entering the kitchen before delicate hands clasped around one of theirs.

“Sanji, are you alright?”

“We’ll need to restock at the next isle unless we want Luffy eating the boat,” Sanji says instead while turning to face her. Nami levels a doubtful look at them but she squeezes tight and interlocks their fingers into a comforting, warm grip.

“If that’s all Sanji.”

At their nod Nami smiles. “I better make sure we’re heading the right direction after I go talk to Vivi.”

Before she lets go Sanji pulls her hand up and places a light kiss on her knuckles, ever thankful for her friendship throughout the years they’ve known each other. Sanji cares for all of them dearly but Nami was the first person they told about their changing identity, one which she supported unconditionally. The others smiled and accepted it without question, encouraging in their own ways.

Nami smiles at him, understanding and full of  kindness, before she slips out of the kitchen and the laughter of the others drifts in from the open door. The itching, unsteady feeling in their chest was gone and Sanji opens up a cupboard, pulling out glasses for drinks. Maybe they’ll make some Alabastian cuisine later. Figuring out what Vivi might like the best would be a fun project.

~*~

He’s still thinking about those two giants from Little Garden, they were so full of courage and honor and Usopp imagines what their home island looks like as he gazes at the distant snow covered mountains. How big must an island be to support that many giants? What must the buildings and landscape look like? Usopp has many guesses from what little he observed from Brogy and Dorry.

To be the a great, brave warrior of the sea. That’s what he wants to be, for himself and his friends.

Chopper applies another application of salve to his aching face and Usopp resists the urge to flinch away, fisting his pants and closing his eyes instead. It’s still a little weird to be treated by a little reindeer hybrid, different from the ways Kaya practiced her medical care on him and he suddenly hopes she’s doing okay. There is a very small, tiny, minuscule part of him that misses his home island but as he rubs his bruised knuckles, Usopp realizes that he doesn’t regret sailing the seas with his friends.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have seen those giants or seen sunsets over the waters, so perfect and brilliant that he wishes he could capture them on paper. His sketchbooks are filled to the last page with everything he’s seen and of his friends on strange island. 

“Hey Chopper, is it okay if I drew you?”

Their doctor twitches his nose at him, those large eyes blinking rapidly. “You wanna draw me?! I’m not happy about that at all you bastard,” Chopper turns away and giggles.

“Well yeah, you look really cool and you can change forms!”

Chopper’s tail honest to god wags from side to side and Usopp has to bite his cheek before he makes a most unmanly sound. That was _adorable._ It’s not working, wait, he’s gotta think like Zoro. Be serious! Broody! Grr...damn, it was useless, Chopper is cute as hell.

“Usopp! Chopper! You’ve been in there too long come on!” Luffy yells as he bursts in, using his rubber arms to scoop them both up before bouncing outside.

They crash on the deck in a giant heap and Luffy’s laughing wildly as he cuddles Chopper in a rubbery embrace.

“How is your face Usopp? I’m still so terribly sorry about that,” Vivi says with a steadying hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, it’s fine Vivi. You sh-shouldn’t be feeling guilty over it. This is nothing! Have I told you about the time I almost had my legs cut off?”

“No way! What happened?”

He adds as many ridiculous details into the story, turning an instance where he had tripped over a hole into a grand adventure because Vivi shouldn’t be thinking about bad things. Usopp has done his fair share of guilt ridden thoughts and if he has to spin a few tales and make himself look absurd to make her laugh, he will do it a hundred times over.

Besides, it’s not like the fate of a country is on his shoulders. But it’s not solely on hers now either, because she’s their friend, plus he’s pretty sure Zoro has wide enough shoulders to carry all of them if needed.

While he’s getting into the really good part of the story he notices Chopper hanging onto his every word, eyes full of wonder as he covers his mouth with his little hooves. Sanji brings out warm drinks and all the stars are blazing in the cold night sky as Usopp weaves a story about the constellations.

Usopp’s not the strongest, or the smartest, or the bravest of them (yet, yet he hopes) but he’s okay with it. Luffy’s draped over his shoulders and Chopper is sitting in his lap, and maybe he’s not the hero of the story but he hopes that his words inspire them, because his friends are the ones who inspire him everyday.

Later on as everyone heads to bed Usopp volunteers for the night shift, knowing that sleep will elude him tonight as the events of Drum island replay in his mind. What will happen when they get to Alabasta? How will the people treat them?

Sanji hands him a thermos and adjusts the scarf tighter around his neck. Luffy places his hat over the beanie Usopp’s already wearing, always trusting in him to keep them safe (and he still doesn’t know what to do when that tight, warm feeling bursts through his chest like spring flowers at that gesture).

He’s climbing up to the crow’s nest when someone taps the bottom of his boot.

“Here. And wake me up right on the hour Usopp, you don’t need to stay out longer than you have to,” Zoro says as he tosses up his coat at him, looking not even the slightest bit bothered by the chill breeze.

“O-ok Zoro, I will. Good night.”

“Night.”

It’s quiet, snowflakes drift around him. It’s quiet and dark but he doesn’t feel afraid, not when Merry sings through its wooden boards with each wave of the sea, and not when his friends are nearby, sleeping soundly because he’s the one keeping an eye out.

“I’m a brave warrior of the sea, mom,” he whispers and watches the stars twinkle brightly above.

~*~

Somewhere across the Grand Line there is a drifting boat, broken and old, full of skeletons and bones laid out with care without a speck of dust or grime on their surface. The air is full of moaning creaks and the constant sound of the waves crashing against the hull, and maybe there are voices drifting in the wind but it’s hard to tell in the ever present, suffocating fog around them.

Something clinks against the boat, a sound that’s foreign and new, and Brook wakes up with a start. “Who’s there?”

Only the whistling wind answers him but that new sound repeats. He scrambles towards the starboard side and leans over. The discovery would have made his eyes pop out of his socket! If he had any that is!

With the creative use of old fishnets and loose pieces of wood he manages to haul up the mysterious item. A message in a bottle, how romantic!

Brook carefully pops open the cork and with delicate care he manages to pull out the letter. He doesn’t want to open it yet.

“Everyone! Ears up! We received a letter! Oh my, oh my we haven’t gotten anything in years, haven’t we?”

He sits down in the cabin and gently rolls up the letter but he doesn’t look at it yet. What if it was empty? Wouldn’t that be a disappointment for everyone.

“You read it first!” Brook says and shows the letter to his friends.

“So, what does it say? You won’t tell? Fine, I’ll read it for everyone.”

Brook breathes in to soothe his nerves and clears his throat, then he performs warm ups for his voice. It’s a special occasion after all, he must do it perfectly.

“Hang in there Brook, you got friends coming. Hopefully the damned bird got this to you. I stuffed some packets of your favorite tea inside the bottle too. You liked jasmine blends the most if I remember right. Someone once told me that the dawn always comes but a song always helps along during the night.”

Someone remembers him?

The whistling of the wind doesn’t sound as bleak anymore, the moaning of their beloved ship sounds brighter.

“We haven’t sung in a while everyone. What say you we practice a little?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly flailing at everyone's wonderful comments and support for this fic, it means so much. Thank you all so much for reading and dropping by, you're all very lovely <3  
> And Sanji is nonbinary/fluid, however way you want interpret it


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -shows up 2 years late with starbucks-
> 
> Hoo things have gotten busier lately and I've just been running around like a headless chicken and only being able to write in short bursts. Thank you guys for your continued support and absolutely lovely comments! You are all wonderful <3

"That’s no way to fish if you’re planning on catching anything.” 

“Ain’t planning on fishing.” 

The old man pushes his rowboat towards the sea inch by inch as his feet sink into the wet sand, leaving a set of impressions in the sand that sea floods into with foaming bubbles. Ronin watches him for a moment and there is no doubt that a tremendous amount of strength is still left in that body hidden under oversized clothes. The sea rushes around his feet and Ronin exhales before he treads forward, swords and robe left behind him in a neat pile. Calm waves lap against his knees, then his waist, and he stops in that space with his feet planted on neither land nor sea.

The sea is trying to drag him down with each crest, each wave fueled by the gale winds of a gathering storm beyond the horizon. The old man is whistling, weathered hands gripping the oars with a steady grip and simply drifts around without a single worry. He peers at Roning, considering and assessing, while adjusting his glasses with a grin belonging to kings.

“You’re that upstart that’s been raising such a ruckus. Now, now just what are you looking for a in a place like Sabaody I wonder,” Rayleigh says as he strokes his beard.

“Who knows. Maybe I’m here for the amusement rides.”

Rayleigh laughs, the crow’s feet around his eyes deepening with the act. He trails off into a sigh and crosses his legs, looking over at him again with a lopsided grin. “I’m partial to those little merry go rounds myself,” he speaks while cleaning his glasses with the hem of his cloak, “but my question still stands. Why are you here, friend?”

“Just felt like it,” Ronin murmurs and looks down at the clear waters, stones and seashells glimmering beneath them. As he’s raising his head back up a shadow flickers below him, unfocused and blurry. It’s coiled around his leg and he _feels_ it, the freezing cold pulsating from it as bright emerald eyes look up at him, and the drag of the waves against the beach sound more akin to hissing in that moment.

 In another blink the snake is gone.

 “My lovely wife owns a bar not too far from here. How about you join us for dinner before you set out to wherever you’re going next,” Rayleigh says politely, words phrased in a way that made refusal near impossible.

 “Sure,” Ronin manages to reply while the cold sensation in his leg slowly fades away as he makes his way back to shore.

 Countless bubbles float up around them and pop once they reach higher into the atmosphere, drowning the entire island with that constant repetitive noise. The two of them stride confidently through the groves, pace easy and relaxed. Rayleigh greets people as they drift past them and pointedly veers them away from the path of any debt collectors.

“Rumors of your accomplishments seem to be greatly exaggerated, friend. But then again, hearsay starts from a kernel of truth.”

“Get to the point,” he growls out.

Rayleigh rubs his beard, raising an eyebrow at him. “What purpose gives you the strength the face down two admirals and the entire world?”

“A promise,” Ronin answers simply, truthfully.

It’s been ten long years since the events on Raftel, ten years that went by in a blink of an eye and yet seemed to drag on not unlike the decay of bones. It’s been years and it feels as if he’s been drifting on the seafloor with the dappled sunlight piercing down and unable to swim up to feel the real sun warm warm his skin. Sometimes during still nights where the silence is almost suffocating, he wonders if he’s changed anything being here.

Rayleigh nods, more to himself than anything else, as they ascend the stairs. Shakky’s Rip-off Bar is empty of patrons for the time with either the cost of the drinks or the midday sun dettering any patrons. Ronin’s bet is on the latter as he skims through the chalkboard menu and grimaces at the prices.

“Rayleigh, back so soon? Oh, I see you’ve brought a friend. Hello dear, have a seat.” She gestures at the bar, one hand tapping away the ash of her cigarette. 

Ronin suddenly remembers a moment, hazy from time and neglect, when he was sitting in the kitchen with Sanji in the middle of the night. The cook was smoking by an open window with the breeze carrying away the wisps of smoke and fading embers into the sea. Sanji didn’t yell at him for drinking in there and in turn he didn’t question why Sanji smoked despite Chopper’s pleading (and if Sanji coughs, an ugly wet sound, and hacks out thick blood from his lungs neither of them mention it.) 

“Have you been a pirate long?” 

“Most of my life,” Ronin answers as he accepts the drink Shakky slides his way. 

She gazes at him, one brow ever so slightly raised as she held the cigarette against her mouth. “I’ve never heard of you until recently. I tend to keep track of who’s who when interesting individuals come up, One Eyed. You suddenly show up a few years ago and create the biggest stir with Nico Robin.” 

“I’m not as interesting as most,” he says as he sips his drink, “especially considering the fact that the vice-captain of the Roger pirates is your husband.” 

“Oho, now you’ve just peaked my curiosity even more, One Eyed.” 

Rayleigh laughs, not looking the least surprised at his knowledge. “You’ve got some depth to you, friend,” he says and tips his glass towards Ronin before downing it. He tilts his head back, savoring the drink and looks over to Shakky with a wide grin. “Is that the South Blue import you were talking about? It’s divine.” 

“It is,” she replies with a smile, blowing a thin plume of smoke out into the air. 

They talk about their business for a little while and Ronin feels a little more grounded as he listens to them, neither seeming to mind that he hasn’t spoken much. The bell chimes as someone pushes the door open. 

“Rayleigh, Shakky! Good afternoon.” 

“Oh, my. Could it be, Hacchan? Come in dear.” 

“How’s that food stand of your going Hachi?” Rayleigh asks as the fishman sits next to him. 

“It’s going quite well! I came by to see if you two were up to sampling a new recipe.” 

Hachi’s smile suddenly drops, replaced by a terrified and shocked expression as he spots Ronin across the bar. “You! What are you doing here?! I won’t let you hurt Rayleigh and Shakky!” he yells furiously, one arm pointed at him as his other limbs curl up. 

“Relax, I’ve no quarrel with anyone here but if you wanna start something we can step outside,” Ronin says with a pointed look. 

“It seems you two have some history,” Rayleigh remarks brightly, looking between them as if they were long lost friends. 

Ronin offers a one shouldered shrug. Hachi sits back down and folds all of his arms in front of him. “He's the one who attacked our crew in East Blue.” 

“The locals had some complaints.” 

Shakky and Rayleigh expertly nudge the conversation into a lighter topic, discussing local rumors and old sailing stories from their youth with feats that made Ronin’s eyebrows arch up. By the evening hours more and more patrons trickled in and he found himself sharing a drink with Hachi in the corner of the bar. 

The fishman has his extra arms tucked into his jacket, sadly looking down at the countertop. “I knew we shouldn't have tried to take over an island like that. Arlong always said that weak humans deserve to be used, enslaved like they did to us, and he justified it so well but it was...it was still wrong.” 

“Everyone has justification for their actions, as if an universal right and wrong exists to govern every individual while being blatantly ignorant of their own blindness. Arlong did what he did and now he’s dead, what have you been doing about it?” 

“At first I wanted to take revenge, you killed my friends but I was too weak to even crawl away from the rubble. A few of the villagers found me later, the same villagers we terrorized and killed, and,” Hachi rubs at his eyes and curls into himself, “they pulled me out and patched me up. Me! After all the cruel things I did they still helped me and then I understood why you came after us.” 

Hachi avoids looking at him directly but he raises his head just the same. “You killed my brethren but I don’t blame you for it...but I wish that more of them lived. Not everyone hated humans the way Arlong did.” 

There is no way for him to reply to that, he won’t apologize because there is no need for it, and he does not regret what he did. Ronin drinks from his cup and Hachi does the same and maybe it’s not consolation but it’s an end of sorts. Rayleigh shifts his gaze towards him as he exits the bar but he doesn’t follow him out. 

Once outside the noise from the bar is muted and unintelligible and Ronin goes to sit on the top of the stairs. Restraint, discipline, and being mindful about one’s surroundings and consequences are a set of practices Ronin’s kept in the past decades. It was set upon him by himself to be a pillar of strength his crew could rely on but more importantly, someone Luffy could lean on when needed. Their dreams, their future rested on their captain’s back because without Luffy, there would be no tomorrow for any of them. 

Yet there is a hindrance, a heavy weight that seems to have grown in his chest with each passing moment. Restlessness shifts through his bones and he doesn’t know how to address it. Doubt over what he is plagues him and while he has a goal here, it doesn’t _feel_ the same as before, when he was bleeding into the sea and yelling out a promise that seemed bigger than any of them. 

What is his purpose here? Truthfully, he’s unsure, a rare feeling that leaves the bitter taste of iron in his mouth. He’s not certain of what he will do when he sees the Strawhat pirates, they’re not _his_ crew and it’s a fact that he doesn’t wish to face. He hates this feeling, a mess of questions born and cultivated from years of drifting place to place. 

But until Blackbeard’s completely and utterly dead by his blades, he cannot linger in this pitiful state. He’s killed everyone person that would eventually join that bastard’s crew, aside from the ones still in Impel Down. 

Ronin scrubs his face and sighs, digging cold fingers into the sockets of his eyes. Despite it all, despite his own pathetic mind, his memories, and his apprehension, every bit of him wants to see them again (wants to put rest to the ghosts in the edges of his mind). He doesn’t want to continue with feeble minded goals anymore. 

“You’ve lost your captain as well,” Rayleigh states softly, standing a few feet behind him with his hands in his pockets. 

He nods slightly and turns to face Rayleigh as he’s standing up. 

“What I wouldn’t give to sail a few more years with Rogers. Our time has come and gone, our era’s long over but those years were truly something.”

“It doesn’t stop feeling like that, doesn’t it.” 

“No. Not ever, I think. However, seeing this new generation of upstarts warms my bones and I wouldn’t mind seeing how things eventually end up. Afterall, my captain staked everything on this future,” Rayleigh says and smiles widely, eyes bright and full of understanding. 

Ronin cracks a smile of his own and places his hand on the hilt of his swords, back straightening up. Maybe Rayleigh knows something, maybe he doesn’t. It didn’t matter honestly. 

“He must’ve liked that future a lot, then.” 

“Indeed. Isn’t that why we’re still here? To help along the new generation of sailors and explorers, pirates and thieves. Ah, there’s that look in your eye, friend. Have you settled on your destination?” 

“Yeah, I can’t be tardy getting there either. You know of any ships heading to Alabasta?” 

Rayleigh’s answer is an approving grin. 

~*~

 “Sabo.” 

“Yes?” 

“We could have asked Dragon and made this an official assignment instead of sneaking away, even if we have cause to look into the country’s current situation,” Koala chides as she crosses her legs, chin propped up in her hands. The lamplight casts her feature in a soft glow, hair almost radiating, and Sabo has to open his mouth a few more times before he finds the words for her statement 

“But that would be no fun. Besides, like you said we have reason to look into the reports about the power struggles happening in Alabasta.” 

Koala simply raises her eyebrow, pursing her lips as she looks at him with disapproval before she sighs in defeat. 

“Thanks for coming with me Koala, I mean it,” he says because out of the two of them she was the one who liked keeping affairs and missions in order. Always pulling him out of situations where he dived in first. Her coming along despite the disapproval from Dragon meant the world to him, and he’s pretty sure once they get to the bottom of what’s going on in Alabasta Dragon would understand. 

“You’re welcome. You know I always have your back and besides,” she mimics his tone from before, “you’d probably start a war over there if I left you unsupervised.” 

“Really Koala, I’m a professional.” 

“Says the guy who tried to seduce a CP9 agent,” she says as she leans forward with a perfectly innocent smile. 

Sabo squawks with absolute fury (and embarrassment) and feels his cheeks warm up by the second as her grin turns wicked. “For the last time I didn’t know he was that!” Sabo says beseechingly and crosses his arms, and no he’s not sulking.

 “And you guys still send letters to each other,” Koala says in a sing-song manner and laughs as he splutters again. 

“They’re essays! Essays about the failings of the Government and he sends back his defenses.” The last one Kaku sent consisted of nearly twenty pages about the necessity of a strong governing force and while he made some excellent points Sabo isn’t giving up on his stance. Both of them agreed on the outdated status of the Celestial nobles and that gave Sabo enough of a starting point to further his points on other issues spawned from class struggles. 

“Wait, I should reiterate. You’re still trying to seduce a government assassin to turn sides. It’s almost like you’re one of those heroes from the books Dragon likes to read.” 

“His history books?” 

Koala bursts into laughter with such force that she rolls across the seat, feet kicking in the air. He tilts his head because he hasn’t seen Dragon read anything else but documents and reports as entertaining as drying paint. Sabo’s been brushing up on his history to get more concrete information for his letters with Kaku and he doesn’t recall any entries about such a situation as theirs. 

Then the first part of Koala’s sentence dawns on him. 

“I’m not trying to seduce him!” 

She sticks out her tongue and winks, giggling at his current expression. Sabo laments about the day she figured out what happened at Water 7, she was terrifyingly adept at needling out information when she wanted to. Apparently having sated herself with tormenting him Koala leans forward and trails her fingers across the map on the table, index finger circling around the coordinates Ronin left in his letter. 

“Do you think he’ll be there?” 

“I’m certain. If he isn’t we’ll just have to keep searching.” 

Even if the old man gets lost a hundred times over Sabo’s sure that they will eventually cross paths again. He always had a habit of showing up at the right and the worst possible times. Sabo looks out the window towards the sea and rubs at the tendons of his hands. 

He felt it down to his bones, a shift in the winds of change that promised adventure.

~*~

It's barely past morning and the sun is blazing bright and hot in the sky. Ace really wants to take another nap but the crowd in the trading district is gonna thin out in the afternoon and he still only has pitiful crumbs for his leads. 

Ace pulls out a poster from his backpack and shows it to the nearest merchant. 

“Excuse me, have you seen this guy around here?” 

The merchant squints through his caterpillar eyebrows and strokes his beard as he peers at the picture. “Indeed, that lad passed through here not too long ago.” 

“Thanks!” 

He looks down at the poster and grins, cheeks burning bright as he taps his feet against the ground, the dust blown away by warm winds. Ace adjusts his hat and laughs into his hand, not minding the least about the strange looks some folks are shooting at him. Straightening up he makes his way further into the town, head raised high as he scans the crowd for a familiar straw hat with the poster rolled up safely in his hand. 

Ace stops by a few more stalls, there's a necklace that catches his eye and he wonders if Nami would like something like that. Sanji might like those spices and Usopp will definitely like those bright paints. Half an hour later his backpack is a little heavier and his coin pouch is a little lighter but he's still grinning brightly and tipping his hat towards people that stare. 

“Nami! Those were real golden apples!” 

“Yeah Nami! We could have lived a 1000 years!” 

Ace stops and tilts his head towards the direction of those voices, squinting through the people drifting past. He freezes and looks at them even harder because that's definitely Usopp’s nose and Nami’s hair but they couldn't have gotten that old already. Could they? They were just gangly little string beans when he left. 

A guy with three swords is glaring at him from behind the group and Ace grins right back at him, tipping his hat up with a finger as a greeting.

“Zoro what are you doing back there? We gotta find Luffy,” Nami says over her shoulder, neck craned ever so slightly. She freezes mid step when she spots him, still dragging Usopp and the furry guy before she drops them to the ground suddenly and gasps into her hands. “Ace?!”

“It is you Nami! Long time to no see!” Ace yells back, words trailing off into laughter as he dashes forward, jumping over carts and people alike to get to them. 

“Ace!” Usopp’s scrambling up as well, waving energetically and jumping up and down. 

Ace skids to a halt and picks up Nami by the waist, spinning her around as they laugh and laugh. Usopp jumps onto his back like he used to when they were younger and Ace still has no trouble spinning them both. After an almost dizzying amount of spinning he gently sets down Nami and wraps his arms around them both, hugging them both tight and warm and not even the sun could compare to the joyful heat travelling through his body in that moment. 

“Nami! Usopp! It’s so good to see you guys!” 

“It’s been a while! What’s up with that cool tattoo man? We gotta celebrate this, you know Luffy would want to,” Usopp says as he slaps his back a few times. 

“Zoro, Chopper! Meet Ace! He’s one of Luffy’s big brothers,” Nami waves the other two over, names spoken in warm, affectionate tones. 

“Nice to meet you. I see my little brother wrangled up more people to join his crew, thank you for taking care of him.” 

“It’s not a big deal.” 

“Are you really Luffy’s big brother?!” Chopper shouts, suddenly turning into a much smaller and much cuter form as he jumps to cling onto Ace’s shoulder. 

“Woah, you changed sizes. That’s amazing.” 

Chopper muffles his giggles into his little hooves and Usopp’s explaining what exactly the little reindeer is when a sound much like explosion echoes from the other side of town. 

“That must be Luffy.” 

“Yeah,” Zoro agrees morosely with him while rubbing his temples. 

“Ace, we were gonna meet up with Sanji and Vivi and get our supplies back to the ship. Could you grab Luffy and meet us there?” 

“Sure thing Nami.” 

“He’s gonna be so psyched to see you Ace!” Usopp says with a bright smile as he picks up Chopper from his shoulder and runs to catch up with Nami. 

Zoro’s still staring at him with furrowed brows and something about that expression rekindles old memories, of a world weary swordsman sitting at the edge of a cliff with his feet dangling in the air as he gazed out solemnly at the horizon. Another crash sounds and Ace stores away the thoughts before running towards the direction it came from. 

Just like when they were kids he’s gotta go get his little brother out of trouble. 

Maybe there’s a touch of fire in his steps and maybe his fingers leave burning marks in corners of buildings as he rounds past them at full speed but he feels all to giddy over seeing his little brother again. Ace yells out apologies as he runs by panicked people and jumps up onto the roof of houses to navigate the town better. Farther ahead he spots a glimpse of his brother being chased by a marine with some sort of smoky Devil Fruit. 

“Oi! Luffy!” he shouts across the rooftops despite the distance and sprints after them. 

It doesn’t take long to catch up to them and fire flickers into life around his fist a second before he realizes it as smoke envelopes around Luffy. No one’s gonna bully his little brother when he’s around, especially some marine that’s for certain. Ace pulls his arm back and punches, fire roaring to life and eating through the distance and smoke within seconds. 

“Ah?” Luffy squeaks from where he fell. 

The marine straightens up and looks at Ace, chewing on the cigar with a deep frown. “You, huh?” 

“Ace?! You ate a Devil Fruit too?” 

“Yep! The Flame-Flame fruit,” he answers back. Luffy’s looking at him with wide eyes full of wonder that he hasn’t grown out of (Ace hopes he will never lose that sense of childish, honest glee over everything and anything). Luffy claps his hands as he jumps up, looking torn between flinging himself at Ace or to pull him towards him as he sports a gigantic smile that lights up his entire face. 

Ace isn’t afraid to admit he’s missed his little brother and his stupid face. 

“Get going Luffy! We’ll chat later. I’ll hold them off and catch up with you guys.” 

“I’m going! Don’t take too long Ace!” Luffy sticks out his tongue and runs ahead, laughing all the way with a considerable bounce in his steps. 

“Sorry about cutting in like that but it’s natural for a big brother to worry.” 

Smoker’s pinched, almost shocked expression is worth the slight delay and Ace grins, sharp and full of danger as flames blaze into life around them.

~*~

 Luffy’s boisterous laugh echoes across the sea as he propels himself back onto the Merry from the town’s edge, the wood of the railings smooth and warm under his hands. Before he could collide with the mast Sanji manages to catch him as he's midair and wraps him in a headlock. 

“Luffy! We told you to keep a low profile here,” Sanji admonishes as they ruffle his hair. 

“It wasn't my fault this time! I was just eating.” He didn't even get to eat everything he wanted either. 

“Where's Ace? Wasn't he with you?” Usopp asks and pokes his cheek once, then one more time for good measure. Luffy puffs up his cheeks and Usopp continues to poke him, both of them snickering until a particularly forceful poke makes him spit out with laughter. Sanji sighs and Nami gently moves Vivi out of the range of his saliva. 

“He said he'll catch up! He's strong so we got nothing to worry about it.” 

“I can't believe your older brother is a part of the Whitebeard Pirates,” Zoro says, arms crossed as he's looking up at the town.

“They sound cool, Ace wouldn’t be with them otherwise! Hey, when I kick Ace’s butt he’ll come join us instead.” 

“Luffy, you never won when you two fought,” Nami says flatly. 

“Besides, he has a Devil Fruit now,” Sanji adds. 

A flicker of a presence in the back of his mind, something akin to an itch, makes him turn just as Ace jumps onto the railing. “Who’s ass are you gonna kick?” he says, almost gleefully as he grins down at Luffy before he hops down and wraps an arm around him. 

Luffy immediately responds by flinging his arms around his big brother several times, absolutely relishing in the way Ace felt so warm and _alive_ next to him as he laughs. He feels like he’s gonna explode from the joy bubbling in his chest just like a balloon. 

“Don’t hog your brother all to yourself!” 

Just as he registers Nami’s words and right before he could pull his entire crew into a giant hug Merry suddenly rocks violently. All of them stay on their feet and look toward the horizon where a mass of Baroque ships approach with more cannonballs flying through the air straight at them. Sanji and Zoro take care of the projectiles like they're nothing.

“Those are the Billions fleet!” Vivi says, voice full of anger. 

“Man, those guys are sure annoying,” he pouts because Vivi shouldn’t sound so hurt.  Luffy’s just gonna go over and kick their asses really quick.

“I’ll clean them up, you guys just sit back and watch,” Ace says reassuringly and clicks his tongue before he somersaults down onto his little cool raft thingy. 

He has absolutely no doubt in his brother’s skill and hops up on the railing and sits down comfortably, watching Ace propel himself away. Zoro leans forward, expression almost expectant as he folds his arms in front of him. “Let’s see how good the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates really is.” 

Luffy catches something move behind the line of the fleet, a small boat flying a single undecorated red flag maneuvers between the ships like a leaf floating through a river. He’s seen a flag like that before, a memory of grandpa Garp trickling through his mind. He’d gotten a letter one day, it didn’t have many words but it had a flag like that folded in it, one that grandpa threw into the fire with saddened eyes and expression stormy.

“Who’s ship is that?” Usopp asks as he peers through his binoculars.

Ace throws out a spectacular blaze of fire that turns the entire fleet into cinders and the little boat gets caught right in the middle of it. Faster than a blink of an eye something forces the fire up and away from the boat and Luffy’s leaning forward to the point of almost falling off. A strong arm steadies him by his torso but he doesn’t turn to see who it is, transfixed as he was by the figure standing in contrast to the fiery sea. 

He watches Ace approach the boat and violently veer off to the side, arms frantically windmilling through the air as he tries to keep his balance before falling into the sea. Without even thinking about it Luffy stretches himself up, slipping free of the arm around him, and flings himself at his brother, never mind the fact that he can’t swim as well. 

“Luffy!” 

“Shit, get the ship closer to them!” 

Luffy scrambles to grab onto Ace’s raft before he falls straight into the waters but he ends up flipping the thing over. The sea is cold and his body feels heavy and full of lead. He doesn’t sink, not yet as his arms are still somehow tangled around the little raft thing. However, he can’t swim up so he turns around as best as he could and tries to spot where Ace was through the burning in his eyes. 

It was getting harder to hold his breath and he tries to pull himself up towards the surface but his limbs won’t cooperate. Air escapes from his mouth and he closes his eyes. The raft flips over and someone is dragging him back up frantically with strong, firm fingers. Luffy coughs up seawater and raggedly gasps in lungfuls of air and squints up at the two figures on standing on the raft. 

“Luffy you idiot. Just think for a second before you do something! You were just gonna end up sinking with me,” Ace says, worry and anger mixed in equal parts as he hauls him up. 

“Ah, sorry Ace,” he says and laughs softly. Salt is stuck inside his throat and sticks out his tongue at the awful taste. “Who saved you?”

“Look for yourself,” Ace murmurs, voice tight and heavy, and turns him slightly towards the other guy standing next to them. 

Luffy blinks and stares at the guy and he forgets to breathe, body seizing up and taught, and it’s not unlike sinking because his chest feels heavier than the entire world. He reaches forward, fingers clutching at air because he’s afraid to touch yet he feels like his body will vibrate and shake into something sharp from inaction. So he’s frozen, eyes wide and mouth agape. 

“You’re still getting into trouble I see. _Luffy_.” 

Sabo. Sabo. _Sabo._  

Sabo is smiling softly at them, hair wet and clothes soaked. It’s that same smile, crooked at the left corner with just a slight gap between his front teeth. His eyes are full of warmth and light, and something bright fills up Luffy’s chest and lifts the heavy emotions away. It’s like when birds fly away at dawn’s light, it's like warm spring flowers tickling his nose. 

“Sabo! It’s you! It’s _you!”_  

Fat tears fall down his cheeks and he closes the distance between them, hands clutching onto Sabo’s back as he grabs him tight, tight. Afraid that if he lets go he will disappear again and he breathes in deeply. There’s a frantic heart beating against his and there are arms holding him just as tightly and he’s _warm._

He’s alive. 

Ace envelopes them both and he hears both his brothers crying with such emotion that they’re shaking from it all. It could be relief, it could be joy, it could be anything and everything and he cries even louder and lets himself just be in this moment.

Sabo’s alive.

Eventually, minutes, hours, he doesn’t care anymore, they pull away and simply look at each other. Marking down differences, finding new scars and old but even after all the years it’s still them. 

Sabo places a lingering kiss against his forehead and smiles, fingers fruitlessly wiping away the constant stream of tears and snot running down Luffy’s face. Ace leans down and rests his forehead against Sabo’s before he pulls him into a tight hug again. His knuckles are white from gripping Sabo’s shirt, his cheeks are red and puffy, and still his eyes shine brighter than the sun.

Luffy wraps his arms around them both and he cannot think of a single moment that’s better than this. There is a hand carding his hair back and there is an arm resting securely around his shoulder and he feels like his chest is going to burst apart and he laughs.

His laughter makes his brothers join in and it sounds good. It sounds so good that he feels his heart ease and there are new tears falling down their eyes. Sunlight brings out the color in Sabo’s kind eyes and they’re as clear and pretty as the ever-changing blue of the sea, speckled with green and gold.

They somehow manage to sit down the raft without falling over, Luffy in between both his brothers, and it’s the best feeling, being able to say  _both._ Shoulder to shoulder with arms constantly moving, gripping onto something of the other to reassure themselves that they’re still here.

It’s endless, the sea. It’s huge and impossibly big and he’s just so happy that they’re here right now.

“Ace, Sabo. I love you guys.”

“Now that’s just sappy,” Ace says as he ruffles his hair and leans in even closer. His smile is watery and he hiccups slightly.

“Words cannot describe how happy I am to see you two,” Sabo confesses, squeezing his hands tight as his eyes tear up again.

There will be time for stories and words to be exchanged, there will be time for questions and mysteries but for now...For now, they look towards their dreams waiting for them across the horizon and simply bask in each other's presence as the sea gently rocks them back and forth.

His cheeks hurt but Luffy cannot stop smiling as his older brothers rest their heads against his.


	16. Chapter 16

A sense of old memories guide him toward a place both old and familiar. As he nears the island on a little lifeboat a gentle wind carries the scent of the sea with it, jingling his earrings as it passes by, curling around him as if it’s trying to carry him away somewhere. He looks ahead and spots the Going Merry hidden away behind the formation of rocks in between the southern coves of the island.

Ronin stops by the ship and looks up at the smiling sheep figurehead, the clotheslines arcing down from the mast (long dried laundry fluttering in the wind), and the grove of mikan trees heavy with fruit. Those are the first of many to trigger long, dusty memories, and it’s the smallest of things that twist a smile from him. He climbs onto the deck and places his hand against the sun-warmed mast, listening to the creaks whistles as Merry bobs happily over the waters.

“It’s good to see you again, Merry. Thanks for carrying them over here.”

He walks around slowly, footsteps quiet as his fingers trail against the walls and railings, taking in the little trinkets left behind. Explorative. Sentimental.

A zephyr breezes past and swings open the doors to the galley, in the distance the calls of the dugongs and seagulls echo through the cove, the sound of the sea a comforting backdrop behind everything else. He climbs up the steps and enters the kitchen, clean and immaculate as expected. All the utensils and dishes are safely stored away and it takes him two tries before he finds the cupboard with the glassware. Ronin sits down and feels his body unwind in a familiar place from a long journey. He studies all the little scratches and scrawls on the dining table and tires to remember if their table was this worn as well.

Simply, just sitting in the ship that helped them with their initial journey sent him down a lane of nostalgia that makes a fond smile stretch across his features. The bells chime softly from the wind and even the smells are the same -of wood and islands, of fields and sun. He drinks another cup of water before he exits the kitchen, door shutting with a gentle click as he gazes up at the blue skies before heading inland.

As the day progresses clouds swirl over the island of Alabasta, golden and opaque with the promise of harsh sandstorms that bite away at flesh and bone. Hot winds whistle through the sun-bleached bones as he walks through the endless sands. A thought of whether he could walk forever without an end passes through his mind, easily dismissed like the grains of sand floating through the air.

Each of his footsteps are eaten away in an instant by the desert and Ronin pulls his hood around a little tighter as he continues his journey. He glares up at the blazing sun, still hours away from winking into dusk-light beyond the horizon before it paints the world red and gold. A desert fox yips nearby and it’s the only sound that breaks the hissing of the shifting sands.

Hours later he makes it to the city, full of civilians running and screaming as buildings burned. The sound of fighting, tinged with desperate voices and clash of steel, grows louder with each step. Men dressed in the colors of the kingdom with lavish armor are fending off a rabble of people. People with worn clothes and gaunt faces, angry and defiant as they push and push. Just as he considers walking away and further towards the palace he feels a familiar presence that’s he learned to look out for, unconsciously yet knowingly so, slam into the front lines with a kick that demanded hefty amounts of respect and space from his opponents.

Sabo looks over his shoulder and yells something. Probably a rallying speech that bolsters the fighters. He’s glad the brat made it here and applied himself to the mess that was going on. Ronin rolls his shoulders and strides forward, hand tucked into his robes as he tries to ignore the sticky sweat beading down on his neck from the blistering, lingering heat.

His own memories of Alabasta are old and centered on a fight - _blood and steel singing in his veins_ \- in a forgettable street with a man that was his first real obstacle. However, there is one thing he knows of this battle. It is a pointless, senseless beast driven here by lying words and desperate, deafened ears. While his level of control was nowhere near his captain’s, Ronin still possessed the means of the particular skill.

Five steps, five hundred paths lay before him. The cacophony of the fighting drowns out until the steady beating of his heart echoes in tandem with the rhythm of the world.

Willpower, intent and lightning sharp, surges from him and crashes through the mass of people and pulls almost all of them down, not unlike violent waves dragging swimmers under the sea during a storm. There are only a dozen or so left standing, some weakly staggering up, and Sabo looks over to him as he twirls his cane from one hand to the other.

“You finally made it, old man,” Sabe remarks with a grin, eyes sparkling warmly as he teases out the last words. He taps his cane against his shoulder as he approaches, hopping over unconscious bodies without a second glance. “Using that is a little unfair, no?”

“My other option was killing all of them,” he replies flatly.

“Glad to see your sense of humor hasn’t changed much. Oh!” Sabo exclaims as he suddenly slaps him on the shoulder, smile growing impossibly larger. “Guess who I ran into here!”

“Who?” He decides to humor the brat at least.

Instead of answering like a sensible person Sabo continues to giddily slap him on the shoulder. “Just guess!”

“Is it-"

“Ace and Luffy! Both of them! Can you believe it?!”

“That’s-"

“What are the chances? And Luffy’s getting into all sorts of trouble as usual. After the princess told us of the situation in this kingdom we knew we had to help.”

“Then-”

“Also the rumors about Nico Robin turned out accurate, she’s here in this mess as well. Hey! You’re going the wrong way old man! Walking away when someone is talking to you is very rude you know.”

He was hoping to walk away unnoticed because the brat kept hitting him on the shoulder, excitement unconstrained as he talked about his brothers. Sabo grabs him by the empty sleeve and tugs him back. Luffy used to do that when he was a kid, endearing in the ways only he could be. Ronin grumbles that he was walking the right direction and Sabo gives him a constipated look. “It must have been divine luck for you to have even made it here.”

“You just exaggerate a problem that doesn’t exist.”

“I believe every person that has met you for even a minute can beg to differ.”

“Let ‘em beg, they’re still wrong.”

Sabo suddenly pushes his entire weight onto him, groaning dramatically. “How unworldly can you _be?_ ”

Ronin doesn’t even blink at his action and just stands there, unmoving as Sabo continued to apply his weight onto him. After a few moments he takes a step back and watches with some satisfaction as Sabo flails momentarily but the brat regains his balance without any trouble.

“What’s the status?”

“We _were_ making headway in a negotiation but one of Baroque’s agents shot the rebellion’s leader during a crucial moment. At this point we’re just focused on damage control and getting as many civilians safe while Luffy deals with Crocodile,” Sabo says everything in an even, professional tone, apparently taken charge of the situation. “A bomb went off in the sky ten minutes ago and Koala is coordinating evacuations. Ace is clearing out Baroque strays around the city, and Luffy’s last location was at the palace while his crewmates are scattered around the city.”

There is no hint of worry in his voice and his posture is impeccable. He ignores the tight clench of Sabo’s hand on his sleeve, nodding instead. “To the palace then.”

“You go on. There’s still fighting throughout the city,” Sabo says instead as his gaze shifts back to the city, smoke and dust clinging over it like an oppressive force. Ronin reaches out and pats his shoulder, nodding proudly at Sabo’s determined expression.

After dealing with an foolish group of Baroque agents trying to stop him he takes a moment to align himself with where he’s supposed to go. He runs towards the palace and it’s gleaming towers and sees a figure soaring through the air with bloodied coattails and a gleaming, broken hook. Without a shadow of a doubt he believe Luffy could take care of Crocodile like he did before and he grins. He continues on his path but somehow the streets changed and shifted when he looked away and now he pauses at a crossroads, looking every which way and tries to figure out where the palace went.

The scent of blood fills his nose, heavy on his tongue, and he turns to see his younger self running towards him. His shirt is seeping with blood, fresh spots of it blooming from the many, many wounds on his body, but despite it he’s pushing himself with onward with an almost desperate edge. Exhaustion and pain clear in the lines of his body.

It takes his younger self, this Zoro, a moment before he notices him and freezes -body immediately on alert. His eyes flick towards the swords, assessing and critical, and grimaces with bloodied teeth as he glares up at Ronin.

“Who’re you?”

For a moment Ronin entertains the idea of telling him he’s his father, just to see the reaction. The sound of the earth rumblings shifts both their attentions away but he does not miss the way Zoro narrows his eyes are him with enough intensity to rival sunspots.

“Let’s get to your captain.”

“I don’t like repeating myself. So who the hell are you?” Zoro demands, eyes flicking down to his swords again.

_Neither do I._

Oh he was stubborn in the worst of way, still irrevocably is, and Ronin snorts. “I’ll tell you later.”

Before the reply comes he continues towards the palace and is soon followed by an indignant yell as Zoro catches up. It doesn’t feel as otherworldly as he expected to see his younger self like this (was his hair really that green?). They’re different from experiences, they’re in the same in the ways that matter, down to the marrow of their souls and the violence in their lungs.

Mihawk’s scar is a still healing, fresh and bold, stark line standing out in the mess of his bloodied body. Zoro looks at his chest in turn, brows furrowing as he inspects the identical, if much older and faded scar, and he presses fingers into the flesh between his own shoulder and clavicle, ignoring the spurt of blood that oozes out as he continued to stare. Their scars start at the same location, carving down over their heart in the same jagged lines.

They walk in silence but he could feel the palpable restlessness lashing out in waves from Zoro, an injured predator snapping at an intruder in its territory. It’s a heady mixture of adrenaline and pain that’s he riding on. High from a win over a strong opponent and overcoming his limits, and trying, trying to keep the shakes of his muscles in check as he keeps himself tense and on alert.

Ronin doesn’t worry over his condition -it’s himself after all- and continues to walk through the streets full of rubble and dust that sticks to his throat, an irritating sensation. The earth shakes once more and both of them change the course of their direction.

“That’s the opposite way of where we were going. Just where the hell were you leading us?!” Zoro snaps, all surly and indignant.

“Not like you had a better idea!”

“I was going the right way until _you_ sidetracked me!”

“You wanna go at it? I’ll go easy on you since you look like you’re a second away from collapsing.”

“Shut up you geezer! I’ll show you where you can stick your damn business into,” Zoro snarls, a few of his larger wounds reopening from the sharp, uncouth motions of his arms.

Ronin looks ahead and huffs, rough laughter hidden behind a cough. It feels ridiculous to argue with his damned self and it does feel a little unfair to pick on the younger Zoro, whose emotions are still unchecked and shamelessly on display. Something that is neither good or bad, just a trait that simply is for now. He’d forgotten this part of himself, truth to be told.

They finally reach an open area and spot three figures crawling away from a collapsed passageway. Luffy all but throws himself down on the ground as Robin gingerly moves away, their bloodied and bruised bodies covered in dirt and dust. He doesn’t remember seeing Robin injured before and quickened his pace, stubbornly stamping down on the onslaught of worry.

She notices him first, hands pressed against her bleeding abdomen as her shocked expression morphs into a small smile. “Mr. Swordsman,” she greets softly.

Luffy pulls his head up and stares at their approach, a small and tired smile on his face. “Roro? You got more white hair.”

“Roro? _”_ Zoro mumbles, face twitching somewhere between disbelief and confusion.

Ronin kneels down next to the young captain and gently cards back the unruly hair. “It was white when you were a kid,” he says quietly and watches as Luffy passes out, smile still in place. Pride swells through him. Pride and a fondness that has no depth that makes his heart clench from the weight of it as he gazes at Luffy’s face.

He’d almost forgotten the minute details of his face, the curve of his nose, the way his brows relaxed in his sleep. Ronin thought _-wished-_ that from the years away would have eased the pain, but being in his presence that’s growing into what it was and what it _could_ be once more, is a type of suffering beyond his limits.

The start of the long awaited rain is a welcome relief and he forces himself to breathe the gentle petrichor and the lingering scent of the sun clinging in the air.

Robin is staring between Zoro and him with a strange expression but no time is given for questions, an inopportune moment for such a reunion as it is, a war must be stopped and injuries to be tended to. The king wants to see to his kingdom and personal mysteries are put on hold. While the other three make their way back to the city center with the king carrying Luffy, Ronin sits down next to her.

“Let’s look at that wound.”

“A scratch, nothing more Mr. Swordsman,” she replies but doesn’t protest when he pulls off her coat and shreds it to pieces. “You’ve come at an interesting time with curious company.”

His thumb brushes over the pulse inside her wrist, the delicate bird-like bones feeling far too frail in his hand. “A troublesome hour it seems,” he says as he wraps makeshift bandages around her torso.

“I see you still fret like a brooding mother-hen.”

“Why do you think I have grey hairs.”

Robin smiles again, raindrops slowly mixing in with the blood on her skin, and it forms splotches of faded red that stream down in thin rivulets. He takes off his robe and covers her with it, far too large but she looks content in it as she pulls it tighter around herself. “Are you good to walk?” he asks while getting to his feet, hand held out.

“Yes. Tell me where we are headed to first, Mr. Swordsman.” Her comment doesn’t go over him but he doesn’t have the heart to bristle at her, her company a welcome presence.

“The palace.”

She simply arches an eyebrow and pulls herself up with far more grace than what an injured person should.

“Very well.”

~*~

Ace and Sabo are waiting atop the palace steps, sitting across from each other with their hands clasped together. Upon closer inspection it appears they are playing thumb wars.

“You got those crazy strong fingers, it’s no fair.”

“Is the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates admitting defeat already?”

“Tack on the rest of my name and make it even wordier if you’re doing that,” Ace quips as he holds out his hand for another match. Despite his tone the smile on his face is wide and blatantly happy.

Sabo grins back and clasps their hands together but instead of initiating the game he brings his other hand out and encircles it around Ace’s. “I’m so glad you’re alive, Ace.”

“You’re such a sap, Sabo,” Ace says, voice just as watery as he pulls Sabo in for a hug. Ronin doesn’t feel like breaking apart their reunion but he has to walk past them and the practically quaking guards behind him aren’t making the mood that much better.

“Oi, brats.”

“Old man!”

“Ronin!”

They both stand up at the same time to greet him, almost tripping the other in the process, and Ace waltzes down the stairs while Sabo trails after him with graceful steps. Sabo’s eyes shoot open when he notices Robin standing right behind him, her head held up high as she gazes at the two brothers with keen eyes.

Ace clasps his forearm with unbridled enthusiasm, grinning  from ear to ear. “Long time no see, Ronin!”

“Good to see you kid,” he nods at him.

“Ah, let’s join the others further inside. Shall we?” Sabo politely interjects, eyes trained on Robin.

The inside of the palace is a bustle of activity, medics and servants almost going underfoot as they carry supplies. None pay them any mind. After twists and turns through hallways that he doesn’t pay any attention to they finally reach the room where the Strawhats are recovering in. A nurse is the process of applying Luffy’s bandages and a doctor is cleaning away Zoro’s wounds with Chopper’s guidance, by the looks of it he’s the last one being treated.

(Chopper often called it a terrible trait when he refused to be looked after until everyone else had been no matter the extent of his own injuries.)

All eyes focus on them when they enter, cheerful greetings choking between words as they took in just who stepped in.

“Miss All-”

Sanji claps a hand around Usopp’s mouth, Nami is looking between him and Robin with utter bewilderment, Chopper twitches his nose as he blinks, and Zoro just glares at them. Koala looks up from a den-den mushi and waves at them with a bright smile.

“Excuse us, we ran into friends in the city. This is Ronin, don’t let his gruff exterior fool you because he’s an absolute push-over.”

“Oi.” Ronin cuffs the back of Sabo’s head.

“Luffy! Are you gonna keep sleeping?” Ace all but shouts as he makes his way into the room.

The two brothers breezily banter with everyone, easing tense moods with anecdotes and sharing stories about Luffy. Ronin guides Robin to a vacant corner and she curls up on the sofa, ignoring the suspicious looks same way an otter flicks off water from its skin. He sits down the floor and rests his head against the armrest, openly inspecting each of the Strawhats.

Usopp sits straight, chest puffed up as he retells his and Chopper’s fight with dazzling embellishments. He looks sure, comfortable in his skin, voice steady and clear. A confidence that didn’t come until later in their lives. Sanji almost looks the same but there was something about the cook he couldn’t quite pin down, a movement in the limbs that felt more fluid than before, the posture that was the same and _wasn’t._

Nami keeps shooting them searching looks, an open minded curiosity on the tip of her tongue as graceful fingers ran unconscious patterns on her thighs. When the cook bends down next to her to ask a question, she answers it with a light touch on Sanji’s hand and a warm smile. What surprised him more was the fact that Sanji didn’t burst from the affection, only smiling with a light nod.

He’s curious about what’s changed.

When he finishes treating Zoro, Chopper trots over with his supplies, expression professionally serious. “You’re injured too. May I check over your wounds?” he asks Robin.

“Thank you,” she answers calmly. As Chopper cuts away at the field dressing and meticulously cleans the injury she offers a small smile. “You’re quite talented.”

“Saying such things doesn’t make me happy! You bastard!”

Finally, Ronin decides to turn his attention to the individual glaring holes into his body, tilting his head at Zoro with a raised brow. The young swordsman is sitting with his legs folded across the room, one hand periodically clenching bone-tight on Wado’s white hilt, expression nothing but suspicion and distrust. Ronin stares back at him impassively before returning his attention towards the others, clearly dismissing him.

In the corner of his eye he sees Ace approach Zoro and sit next to him, slinging one arm around a shoulder as he pulls him towards him in the name of camaraderie. “You should relax Zoro, sitting like that could reopen your wounds.”

Zoro’s growling reply doesn’t phase Ace one bit as he continues to badger him to unwind. Sabo converses with Koala, their tone hushed as her fingers tap against his nose.

The tension in the room’s is not a stifling entity, almost forgettable until one of the Strawhats spot Robin and remember, torn between their good nature and sense of protectiveness. He doesn’t blame them one bit for it but he doesn’t have the energy to explain anything until Luffy wakes up. Robin is dozing on the sofa, a dagger hidden under her head, but by the steady fall and rise of her chest he could tell she’s truly asleep. Unnecessary happy over the fact that she still trusts him so implicitly, even after the years, he can’t help but feel affection bloom inside him. Soon enough she will trust the rest of the people in this room just as much.

Even if they’re not the exact same, even if they’re not his crew, he trusts them with his life without a single doubt.

At some point Ace and Sabo pushed together Luffy’s bed with theirs and they lay on opposite sides, murmuring as they curl around their little brother. Everyone looks at the sight of the brothers with a soft expression and none dare to disturb their closeness for the night.

The rest of the Strawhats also pull some beds together. It’s an unspoken, unanimous decision by all the Strawhats, cautious for a decision until their captain wakes up. Chopper sleeps between Nami and Usopp. Zoro’s still brooding like a gargoyle from his spot but he accepts the cup of tea Sanji offers him with a nod. The cook also deigns to stay up to keep an eye on things but with a far less hostile air than the other. Koala continues to sit by the table, writing down and relaying reports. At some point he needs to prod her to go get some rest.

Some hours later he wakes up from his nap as quiet footsteps approach before the doors open. In the low light of the few candles around the room Vivi’s hair is still an unmistakable brilliant shade of the sea. She gently pads over to the beds before slipping next to Nami.

Ronin gingerly stands up, left knee protesting from sitting on the floor far too long, and he grips Robin’s hand in a reassuring manner when she blinks awake from the movement. He goes to stand by the window, the shadowed outline of the city illuminated by moonlight. If he closes his eye and listens to various sounds of snoring, he could almost pretend he was in a different time.

“Did you want any tea?” Sanji asks quietly. He hadn’t noticed anyone approaching him, with Sanji this close he’s suddenly hit with a strange sensation, jarring as it was neither a memory or a dream but it felt like he was reliving something.

“You alright?” Sanji asks, head tilted to the side, concerned. An eyebrow is furrowed with concern, and then he realizes, the hair is parted differently. He’d forgotten Sanji used to style it this way.

“Tea would be appreciated,” he replies.

Sanji stares at him for a few moments longer before walking away. As he watches the cook leave, he still couldn’t quite place what else was different.

The cup was warm. Tea leaves swirl inside it, caught in the whirlpool of the motions of his hand. Eventually, he takes a deep breath and blows at the steam, staring out into beginnings of the dawn, and finally he contemplates of nothing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -beats writersblock with a stick-
> 
> I've been writing in short bursts but haven't had a good opportunity to sit down and just edit. Thank you for all your support and kind words! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter :D


	17. Chapter 17

_If you look at the world differently will it change?_

 

“I suppose you didn’t bring me here just for me to be imprisoned, Mr. Swordsman,” Robin says with a slight humorous lilt in her voice. An ornate and delicate teacup rests in her lap as the echoes many voices express their opinions from the window above them.

Ronin leans back on the chair to the point where he’s precariously balancing on the back two legs and glances up at the palace. “Nah,” he replies and inspects the chess board between them, rocking back and forth idly. “Knight to C5.”

One of her hands materializes from the table and moves the piece to the designated spot. A moment later she claims his last rook with a bishop he didn't notice before. As always she manages to divert his attention from the real threats on the board, slowly trapping him into making unfavorable moves. There is delight dancing in her eyes, _almost_ smug but not quite, as she watches him contemplate his next move. Robin lapses into thoughtfulness as silence descends over them, weighed by a long absence but not uncomfortable by any means. She has questions, apparent in the way she gently rubs her fingertips together and looks at him from time to time.

Fancy fat birds with brilliantly colored plumage and tails twice the length of their bodies trill and sing delicately in the garden around them.

“Did you do alright in the last few years?” he asks, looking back at her. Overly concerned perhaps but he watched Chopper change her bandages this morning before they left the room, the injury deep and gaping. The hook narrowly missed puncturing any organs but still fatal on its own regard and he wonders how she dealt with it before, when she was alone.

“I appreciate you asking, Mr. Swordsman. I’ve survived up to this point, it was no different.”

“I know you can handle yourself just fine. Just wanted to know how you were.”

She’s watching the decorative birds strut around, some preening their feathers in the morning light, and her eyes flick over to his, holding his gaze. “I’m alright now.” Her soft spoken words are almost carried away by the wind, and she hides the smallest smile that’s as delicate as rose petals behind the rim of her teacup.

Ronin nods at her answer and sits on the chair properly, four legs and all on the ground, and grabs some crumbs from the table before tossing them to the birds. He picks up a pawn and moves it forward, realizing just as he sets it down that it was a mistake.

“You have a history with those people,” she begins as she moves her knight. Neither a question but just as imposing with the depth of the ocean in her words. Robin’s keen, even now she assembles the pieces together as she waits for his answer and captures another piece.

“Yeah.”

“Their captain in particular. He’s a curious individual having assembled such a colorful and loyal crew.”

“We met when he and Ace were still little. They’re goods kids...Luffy has a knack for leaving lasting impressions.”

It was an understatement really, Luffy was the wind on their sails and the sun in the sky. An eternal will that’s as constant as the moons pulling the sea.

“And their swordsman has such interesting features.”

He snorts at that, legs stretching out beneath the table, and drums his fingers against his chest right over the scar. He’s sure Robin doesn’t miss the movement, the way she shifts her eyes just so. “I’m sure you have theories about that,” he adds.

Robin doesn’t deign to respond to that, instead she takes another sip of her tea and patiently waits for his next move.

This time, in the silence between them, he could pick out words from the debate going on back in the room. Something he doesn’t need to a part of as it began when Vivi discovered Robin during the morning. Luffy is still sleep through all that noise, he could hear him snoring in between pauses of the other's conversation, and it’s so very much him that a smile tugs on his lips unbidden.

“You smiles are different here, lighter. It’s good to see, often times your smiles resemble a reaper’s grimace.”

Ronin wasn’t sure if that last part was a compliment. He moves his king to avoid her bishop and rubs his temples, quickly realizing that he will be forfeiting this game soon.

“Old man! Miss Nico Robin!” Sabo says brightly as he and Koala approach them and he leans forward on the back of Ronin’s chair, looking like he just woke up by his bedraggled hair and the undone cravat fluttering around his neck. The brat peers at the board and chuckles softly. “You're losing rather spectacularly old man.”

Koala pokes up from his other side, yawning and rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes as she rests an arm over Ronin’s head.

“You don't play chess so well either Sabo. Remember Dragon saying you were as hopeless as chess as Ronin is with directions?” Koala teases as she reaches for a biscuit, stretching right over Ronin who sits, suffering as they  invade his personal space without any reservations.

He thinks he sees Robin laughing silently behind her teacup but Koala’s shirt is covering his vision and Sabo’s arm is blocking most of the table as he moves the chess pieces for him, muttering about the lackluster strategy.

“Why did you have to bring that up? _Nothing_ in existence is as bad as Ronin’s sense of direction,” Sabo whines as he attempts to salvage the game.

“Oi,” Ronin growls out but it's a waste of air and effort as they continue to converse over him, literally in this case.

(He won't say he missed these damn brats.)

It ends up with Sabo sitting in the chair next to his, legs kicked up on one of Ronin’s, as casually as you please, while Koala perched on his left leg and tries not fall asleep on the table as she mumbles about the reports Sabo has to finish.

“You two are with the Revolutionaries then?”

“We are, Miss Nico. We've been looking to speak with you. It doesn't have be now, in fact it's at your leisure, but we would appreciate it if you spoke to us before leaving,” Koala answers.

Robin nods at her words and neatly checkmates Sabo. “I'm curious to find out what you need to talk about, very well.”

“I’M HUNGRY! LET'S GO EAT YOU GUYS!”

“NOW YOU WAKE UP?!”

Sabo laughs into his hand, smiling from cheek to cheek as he tilts his gaze up to the window. “He hasn't changed at all,” Sabo says, relief curling around the words.

“Ace! Don't you dare fall asleep!”

There is a bustle of undecipherable noise from within the room before Ace’s sleeping form suddenly shows up on the window, slumped over the window sill, most likely flung over there. A moment later Luffy jumps up on top of Ace’s prone body and waves energetically down at them despite the bandages wrapped tightly around his entire body.

Ronin hears Chopper yelling frantically in the background a moment before a rolled up bandage bounces off Luffy’s head.

“You guys! You're still here so let's go!”

It takes him a few a moments to process the words, sideswiped as he was by how _alive_ the future Pirate King was. He’s missed Luffy’s smiles, bright and large and just _so very genuine._ Ronin’s smiling back, involuntarily and unconsciously from a deep rooted reaction, and he feels lighter with the sunlight streaming in his eye.

_He misses him. Aching, aching deep in his chest._

~*~

At the news of Luffy’s awakening the palace begin the preparation to the grand feast, yet it’s an almost quiet affair in their room as the rest of the world is alight with activity. Robin, Koala, and Sabo left for Crocodile’s lair to go through some documents that they might find interest in. Sanji, Usopp, and Ace went out into the city for additional supplies. And lastly Chopper, Luffy, and Zoro stayed in the room with the older swordsman that Luffy keeps calling _Roro._

Vivi had excused herself out of the room a little after Luffy woke up and Nami wanted to say so many thoughts and words to comfort her and all of it turned into a simple farewell (a kiss on the cheek, fingers intertwined.) They were all shaken up by Miss All Sunday’s presence, except for Luffy it seems. When Nami pulled him aside to ask him why he was so at ease with letting her stay, he only tilted his head.

 _“She’s not so bad.”_  
_  
_ As naive as he could at times, all the time honestly, he’s always had a good intuition when it came to people, and had a simple view about their intent and character. Luffy trusted that old swordsman and he in turn appeared to favor All Sunday. Nami wants to extend that same level of faith onto others but she knows the world well enough that sometimes people _change_. Ten years is a long time, enough time for someone to shift their beliefs and their principles.

Nami doesn’t resent Luffy for his easy acceptance, far from it, but it also means she has to step up and be the common sense that keeps an eye on the matter. If not for herself, for her crew, and most importantly for Vivi. A few ideas for their current situation are swimming through her mind, an odd beast that had neither head nor tail.

“What happened to your eye?” Chopper asks as he peers up at Ronin’s face, one hoof halfway raised as if he wants to inspect it more closely.

“It’s an old scar, not much you can do about it now.”

“I would still like to know! Eye injuries are incredibly delicate and I want to be prepared if it happens to one of my friends.”

At their doctor’s words Ronin’s expression shifts, something raw and open, as a gentle smile appears. His entire demeanor softens as he kneels down and pets Chopper’s head affectionately. “You’re gonna be a great doctor with that attitude. I’m sure when something like that ever happens you’ll do your best.”

Chopper lets out a series of high pitched squeaks, hooves hiding his mouth and bright blue nose as he wiggles under the praise. After Ronin removes his arm their little doctor blinks a few times before smiling sweetly with stars in his eyes.

“Roro!” Luffy yells out a heartbeat before he flings himself from the ceiling lights towards the older man.

As Ronin is catching their captain, ignoring the sound of crashing in the background, Nami turns her attention towards Zoro. He’s sitting cross-legged near the window, swords in his lap, gaze shifting between the scene outside and Ronin with a deep frown and furiously furrowed brows.

Nami ambles over to him and places her index finger on his forehead and smoothes out the worry lines. “Your face is gonna get stuck like that if you keep it up,” she scolds. He doesn’t react outwardly, just turns his face away and presses his knuckles to his mouth with a deep frown that’s almost a pout, and that says more about his current mood more than any number of words could.

“Something about him is... _wrong._ Like something that’s out of place-” he snaps his mouth shut, teeth gnashing together, and claws back his hair with a sigh. “Let’s just focus on how we’re getting out of here later with the marines swarming the city.”

“Being evasive is unusual for you, Zoro,” she says softly but doesn’t press the issue further.

Zoro doesn’t say anything else and pointedly keeps staring outside, body coiled and tense. Across the room Luffy and Chopper are excitedly telling Ronin about their adventure on Drum Island, including a very faithful adaptation on Luffy’s part where he mimics eating a sword by trying to _eat an actual sword._

The usual antics.

She goes over to them to smack Luffy upside the head for worrying Chopper like that and  something about that action makes Ronin burst into laughter. It’s a rough sound, unpracticed or perhaps unused, and that’s a thought that makes her wonder of many things about the swordsman who came to her island one day. His shoulders are shaking as his laughter dies into silent huffs and Ronin looks at them, eyes crinkling with laugh lines and a fond smile.

“You should laugh more Roro. It’s good for your scary face,” Luffy declares as he uses his fingers to stretch the older man’s smile up further, giggling mischievously as he does so.

Ronin shoves him an arms length away and it’s easy to tell that his frown is forced as he keeps Luffy back while he flails around.

“Nami, guys. We’re back,” Sanji announces as they push open the doors with their arms full of bags. Usopp and Ace trail in behind him with their own haul, chattering amicably about tattoo concepts.

Luffy immediately abandons the task of harassing Ronin and leaps over to Sanji’s side, circling their cook and trying to sneak away and easy snacks. “Hands off Luffy. Unless you want to starve until dinner.”

“Sanji I’m starving _now,_ ” he whines dramatically, clutching onto Sanji’s leg like a sad, wet noodle as they walk across the room.

“Then you can wait a few minutes. Go bother the marimo or something, I think he’s starting to wilt away in the sun over there.”

“I heard you shit-cook!”

“So you do have ears under all that moss.”

As Zoro and Sanji trade insults back and forth, Nami watches the harsh lines of their swordsman’s face ease from their familiar banter. Especially so after Luffy finally disentangles himself from Sanji’s leg and limps over to Zoro’s side. He immediately makes room for the captain, slinging an arm over Luffy’s shoulder as he listens to Luffy animatedly talk about one thing or another as he tangles up their legs together.

Chopper’s wanders over to Sanji and helps them unpack the supplies while asking questions about ingredients he hasn’t come across yet.

“Nami, you alright?” Usopp asks quietly as he approaches, shooting glances back towards the others.

She seeks out his hand naturally and squeezes, the gesture returned immediately. “Just processing the latest events. I’m more worried about Vivi, have you seen her on your way back?”

“No, everyone’s busy with rebuilding. But I did get Ace to talk about that old guy and he just said that Ronin is someone you can rely on. Do you remember anything else about him?”

Nami shakes her head and takes another glance at the room. “Looking at them, you would think that Zoro and that man are related but they haven’t approached each other at all.”

“It is a bit uncanny, isn’t it? What if they’re clones? Or-or maybe he’s from another world!”

Usopp lets out a shrill squeak and scampers behind her just as Ronin looks over at them at that moment. He blinks and turns his attention back onto Ace showing off the large jolly roger across his back.

“You should come meet pops and talk about alcohol or whatever you old guys do.”

“I’m sure he’d like to hear stories about your childhood,” Ronin replies with a finger tapping his chin.

“Hey!”

It’s turning into a quiet, easy atmosphere in the room. Ace coaxes them into the conversation, telling a story about how Ronin got lost while playing hide and seek, a story which the older man denies ever happened as they laugh in good nature. In the corner of her eye she spots Luffy leaning over and placing a chaste kiss on Zoro’s cheek, the latter turning away with a red tinged face.

(Later, much later after a feasts and songs and cheerful laughs as she’s watching Vivi deliver a beautiful speech to the people someone places a calloused hand on her shoulder. It’s that smile -soft and melancholy- and thoughtful words uttered in the space between them that gives her pause, and this man is both familiar and a stranger. Before she could turn around and say her reply he is gone.)

~*~

The interesting thing with Usopp’s theories is that they didn’t seem too extreme for Sanji. Their father’s work and the rumors that drift between the seas confirm that much. Watching both the moss-head and Ronin, it’s clear that they are far too similar in build for it to be mere coincidence. There is something about the one armed swordsman that puts theirs on edge, a sort of instinctual response to a wholly unknown threat, and Sanji ponders over that as everyone else seems to accept Ronin’s presence. Even Usopp, as cautious as he was, approaches him with stories and questions. They themselves do not have a strong opinion over the matter. Sanji's seen men with broken spirits before, saw in the reflections of the water, and that is where they can build off of. 

Sanji continues to cut and peel fruits for their afternoon snack, knife gliding across the board in an automatic fashion as their thoughts drift around the recent events.

“What’s that one? It smells really sweet.”

“It’s a mango, there’s a hard pit in the middle that you have to cut around like so,” Sanji says as they demonstrate. “Here, give it a taste.”

Chopper accepts it with a curious sniff, face turning into a blissful smile as he bites into it. “Oooh! It’s good!”

“I’ll give you extra once we’re done with cutting all of them, alright?”

“Thank you Sanji!”

Sanji smiles back and returns to to the task at hand until they see Chopper’s blue nose scenting the fruits. “Say Chopper, your sense of smell is stronger than ours, right?”

“Yes?”

“What does Ronin smell like?”

Maybe it’s a far reach, to ask something like that, but their doctor had mentioned all of them had distinctive scents that were even further altered by their emotional states. Chopper freezes at the question, blinking rapidly as his bright blue nose twitches.

“He smells...like the sea and iron. Bones and ash...and grief,” he states quietly and rubs his nose. “I thought he smelled like Zoro at first but they’re different, like autumn and spring.”

Sanji nods in thanks and continues cutting, their fingers sticky with juice by the end of it. Chopper almost mistook the man for Zoro and perhaps that’s a sign or simply mere coincidence. Yet there are always reason beneath the reasons as no one is just the sum of their parts. Sanji plates the snacks, adding the finishing touches as they call over the rest. Luffy’s the first one over as he laughs and scoops up the carved fruit into his hands.

“These look so cool! How did you cut them this way Sanji?”

“Practice.”

“Thank you Sanji,” Nami says, smiling as she picks up a few berries and oranges as her other hand grips their shoulder.

Luffy’s dragging a protesting Zoro over in his arms, stating that he’s napped enough, and Sanji’s glad that their captain’s a perceptive bastard when he wants to be. He always had that habit, able to understand their moods and needs through unspoken words, always there to lend a shoulder and a smile that lifts away the burdens of the world, even if for a little while.

From their table Sanji glances over and sees Ronin looking at all of them, arm hooked inside his robes with a look of someone who is gazing at an old picture. A fond smile full of memories and an eye that’s as deep as the sea and full of hope. Sanji wonders what exactly he sees in them in that moment.

Warm arms wrap around their shoulders and Sanji perks a brow up at Ace slumping down beside them, and there’s some fruit smudged across his cheeks that Sanji reaches over to wipe off, fingers lingering over the constellation of freckles before withdrawing. Ace smiles at the action and licks off the remnants of sticky, sweet juice from his lips before he rests his head on their shoulder. He's warm and solid, pleasantly so like a low fire, and Sanji finds themselves relaxing with him.

At least Ace’s face didn’t land into the table this time, Sanji muses as Ace smiles at them.

“You can even make fruit taste better just by cutting it, Sanji. You’re so amazing.”

“And you’re exaggerating Ace, but thank you.”

But Ace simply chuckles at that as if it’s an old joke - _it is_ \- and flicks a piece of fruit into Luffy’s mouth. It takes a moment for the younger brother to realize what happened before the table erupts in cheers and laughter.

“Do it again Ace!”

“Don’t stretch your mouth like that while it still has food in it.”

When Sanji looks over a little bit later, Ronin is no longer in the room with them.

(And later, much later as Sanji’s wandering in between the stone arches of the garden, fingers flicking over the worn flint in a habitual manner as jitters run through their body - _tight, tight in their body like it's not theirs-_ there are murmured words drifting in the night air. There is no one but the old swordsman, back towards them as he gazes up at the endless night sky.  
  
“No one cares where you came from, it’s what you do now that matters.”

Sanji, knows, _knows_ that he addressed that to them specifically. Then and there they realize that he too is running from a past that lingers in the shadows. His presence feels familiar, comfortingly so, and Sanji decides to look at the stars instead of thinking too far into it.)

~*~

Sleep was a fickle entity tonight, his mind full of ideas and memories that just kept replaying over and over with more and more gruesome details coming to life.

_What if he didn’t react fast enough? What if Chopper hadn’t made it in time?_

As he’s getting out of bed, feet touching the cool ground, he has the unmistakable sensation of fear crawling up his spine and he expects sharp claws to dig out of the floor to grab him. Drag him under and bury him alive under tons of rock with sand filling his mouth to mute his pleas . That thought passes after a deafening moment, his heartbeat loud as drums, before he breathes out and slowly gets up.

Usopp glances around the room and makes sure no one is awake at this hour of the night,  noticing that Zoro’s missing from his bed as he puts on his shoes. That alone wouldn’t concern him normally, having grown used to their swordsman training at odd hours throughout the days and nights, but he had been extremely restless earlier. That combined with the injuries he sustained Usopp felt as if he had to check up on him, as his friend and crewmate.

At night the palace is quiet, shadows making the stone halls appear larger and loom all around him as he walks around, wary of anyone else and startling at echoes with each step. But he continues on until he finds himself in a courtyard outside. A few torches light up the area in the middle and as he peers into the inky night he discovers two figures circling one another in the training grounds.

He makes his way over quickly, adrenaline already coursing through his body as he recognizes Zoro as one of the figures. Usopp peeks out from behind a pillar and finds his breath catching in his throat as he discovers the bandages around Zoro’s body soaked through with blood, almost black in the lowlight. He’s breathing heavily, barely holding onto his swords, a stiff breeze away from eating the dirt but all too stubborn and unwilling to submit. To lose.

Across him stands Ronin, a wooden sword in hand as he waits for the next move with an air of a patient man with an ironclad certainty of his position in the world.

Usopp wants to dearly go out there and stop this and drag Zoro back into the safety of the crew but there was a feeling that prevents him from moving. It’s not unlike fear and yet different, almost like a warning that makes apprehension bubble inside his stomach. It’s what’s been eating away at Zoro through the entire day, a restless energy kept at bay that is now an uneasy presence lashing across the courtyard.

Zoro’s been expecting this to happen.

For a heart stopping moment Usopp thinks the old swordsman looks over straight at him, but it must have been a play of the light. It _must_ be, he couldn’t have noticed him from such a distance hiding in the shadows and in the next moment Zoro is charging forward, moonlight reflecting in his eyes, and Usopp focuses back to the matter at hand.

A rapid succession of lethal strikes, faster than what Usopp could keep track of, was all blocked with a single movement before Zoro gets pushed back. Bloodstained arms shake from the exertion and he could hear the wet sound of Zoro’s breathing loud and painstakingly clear. Usopp tightens his knuckles, entire body shaking from the indecision.

“A true master of swords knows not only how to cut, but the value of each cut. Without weighing the blade carefully, they will soon find it carving away their own flesh.” As he utters each word, Ronin approaches Zoro with heavy footfalls before stopping an arms length away, the wooden edge of his sword pointed at Zoro’s throat. “A sword is not a subtle tool. Every time you grasp its handle you challenge the world -and _you_ are a ways away before you can challenge me.”

Zoro’s glaring at him, grimace morphing into a mocking grin as he swallows, his throat bobbing against the sword, and licks away the blood on his mouth. “Too bad then. I’m planning on beating the world.”

Ronin stares down at him impassively before mirroring his grin, eerily so. “Then surpass me, for better or worse.”

“Wise men do say one’s biggest obstacle is themselves,” Zoro says as he straightens up, sheathing his swords one by one until he’s only holding the white one. A sudden gust of wind blows out a few of the torches and Usopp barely suppresses the noise of surprise crawling out of his throat.

He could barely see through the darkness as the single remaining torch light flickers weakly in the distant corner. Usopp hears them moving, sees the shadows painted by the moon weave and grow -like monsters taking shape- and he cannot take this anymore. Not when his friend is in danger, not when he is _right there_ to do something about it.

“Stop!”

Usopp’s sprinting towards them, instincts screaming that he should be running the other way as he brings out his slingshot and reaches for his ammo with a steady hand. Zoro’s staring at him in surprise, eyes wide and glinting with starlight. _Good, he’s not angry yet._  
  
“Wha-what’s the big idea?! Can’t you see he’s injured an-and you want to hurt him further?! If you want a fight that badly I...I’ll take you on!” he declares, feeling far more foolish than he did a moment ago.

“Usopp…”

It’s not Zoro who whispers his name like he hasn’t seen him in years, pleasantly in disbelief as his voice mists the air with warmth. His eyes adjusted enough to see in the night and Usopp watches as Ronin practically melts out of the shadows, almost appearing from nothing, with a proud expression. A smile slanted to the side, a single eye crinkling at the corners.

“You’re brave to step in between a duel like that, kid,” he says as he walks away to place the wooden sword aside and rubs the back of his neck. Ronin shakes his head after a moment and looks towards Zoro, the two of them holding the silent, heavy gaze for what seemed hours.

“We’ll continue this another time then. Make sure Chopper sees to him,” Ronin adds the last part while looking at him and just like that, he wanders away, figure melding with the dim twilight.

“Usopp what the hell were you doing out here?”

“I can ask the-the same thing! C’mon we need to get back to the others.”

Saying it was awkward between them as they make their way back would be an understatement. Zoro kept his eyes on the ground, lost in thought as Usopp half-carries him through the halls.

Whatever happened back there wasn’t his business and Usopp knows that it was a personal matter between those two. He doesn’t need to know the reasons behind it.

“Look Zoro, I won’t say anything about what happened back there if you don’t want me to. I shouldn’t have in-interrupted-”

He clicks his mouth shut when Zoro stops them suddenly. “Thanks, Usopp.” It’s a rare thing, to see such sincerity from their swordsman and he finds himself smiling despite their current predicament with red staining both their clothes.

“No-no worries man. Anytime.”

(Later, once he stammers through a story where Zoro trained himself too hard, after admonishments and worry that the swordsman takes upon quietly-

Later, as the two of them sit in the galley with a table between them Zoro sighs and grits his teeth, confessing into the space between them. His words swallowed by the sea outside, that is he is not enough, not yet-

And Usopp _understands_ , more than anyone, and tells him that he will defeat his demons. _You’re braver than you think, Usopp._ Zoro says with a smile that is far too similar another’s. But that is something that he doesn’t need to know, not yet.)

~*~

“You’re leaving.”

“There are still things that need to be taken care of,” he says. The long grass grazes against his skin in a rhythm set by the breeze. A hand brushes away the strands of his hair and he blinks, stars still hazy in his vision.

Robin lies down next to him, body curled inward as she watches him carefully, seeking out answers that shy away from daylight.

“The Revolutionaries extended a most advantageous offer. Protection against the world itself and freedom for me to pursue my dreams without fear.”

His reply is a low hum, knowing she has more to say.

“Yet I hesitated on what is a simple, logical decision and I find myself wondering why. Looking upon you now, I understand the reason.”

“Sounds like you made a decision.”

She stands up and the wind plays with her hair, wisps of black curling around her face as she turns to stare down at him with eyes overflowing with sympathy.

“You’re a man living in the long-gone past who worries over the distant future in the same instant. I pray that one day you will be rewarded for all your suffering, Mr. Swordsman. That one day, you might see your sunlight again.”

He smiles ruefully as a hand grasps his in goodbye. In comfort.

(Later, as brothers say their farewells and comrades clasp their hands together he stares out at the sea as arms are raised in farewell. The black ink of the crossed out lines a stark contrast in the light of day. A crew's promise to one another.

Later, as he breathes out and locks gazes with an individual he was not prepared to part ways, not again, and yet...Yet there is peace within him as he smiles back.)

_I’ll see you again, I promise._

_I want to see you again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy June days! Thank you for reading and I would love -love- to hear your thoughts as always! 
> 
> Thank you, dear readers. You guys are awesome and I hope your summers are full of joy and spent in the sunlight.


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